A New Perspective
by Deepfreeze222
Summary: Ignaous is a pony who likes logic. His entire career is based around his mental ability and organizational skills as a construction worker. However, when he moves to Ponyville for his job, he is greeted by the mare who defies all logic, the party pony herself, Pinkie Pie. Having to deal with a new town, an old friend, and the party pony, his life quickly moves to a new path. Anthro
1. Chapter 1: The meet and Greet

**June 13th (Monday)**

It felt good to stretch my legs after the long train ride. I looked around at the town I would now be calling home, Ponyville, as the residents called it. Although I had heard other, more unsavory names from non-locals. Mostly about how it always seems to be at the center, or close to it, of all the bad things that happened in Equestria.

I didn't care though. I was here for my new job: Construction. The town was home to the corporate juggarnaut Clockerworks, and it had brought about a boom in the number of ponies coming to the town. So, my construction company had sent me here to help with the lay-out and reconstruction of some of the older parts of the town and the construction of the new. I was mainly a designer instead of a helper. However, I wouldn't say no to helping as my magic served to be quite useful in the actual construction.

As I was leaving the train, I checked to make sure I had all my bags. I counted them all twice to make sure and was on my way again in a matter of seconds. I then realized it had actually gotten fairly dark out and lit up my horn so I could see farther than a few feet.

However, I didn't get far as I was jumped by a pink blur that eventually focused into a mare.

"Hi." She said.

I looked around and couldn't see anypony else around.

"Hello? Is there something you need?" I asked her.

She looked behind me and saw my luggage.

"You're new in town aren't you?" She was getting closer with each word and now she was right in my face. It was then that I noticed she was a few inches taller than me. I quickly checked behind her and didn't see anything indicating feathers. She also had a rather large bust for a pegasus, so I could only assume she was an earth mare. Which explained her height.

"Yes, yes I am." I answered. It was all I could do.

"Come to sugar cube corner tomorrow afternoon." With that, and without waiting for an answer, she bounded off.

"That was something." I said to myself while I watched her hop away. She was definitely an Earth mare. I couldn't see any sign of wings.

I brought up the directions to my temporary house. It took me a good ten minutes to get there and another ten to get all my things unpacked.

I laid down in my bed and tucked myself in with my magic, falling asleep ready for tomorrow. Or so I assumed.

 **June 14th (Tuesday)**

I woke up at eight on the dot. I got out of bed and showered up for a day filled with revising outdated map charts and sketching up new buildings for Ponyville's new commercial district.

I left my house around eight thirty and followed the directions my superior had given me to the construction area's main building.

Inside I found an assortmant of earth pony stallions and mares with a few pegasus and unicorn stallions in the mix. I noticed some of them looking at me strangely and wondered why; until I noticed that I was the shortest one in here, a unicorn, and would be one of the main leaders in the developmental department. I guess it made for a weird combination for most of them.

"Hello everypony. My name is Ignaous Sediment. I will be one of the heads of the development team. I would also like everypony to know that my magic is here for any construction needed of it." I explained to them. Everypony else introduced themselves since I was the last one to arrive.

I saw in the back one of my old friends, Oak Cropping, who had moved out here about five years ago. He gave me a small wave and I nodded.

After the rest of the formalities were dispensed, we started on our work. At lunch time, I got a chance to talk to Oak.

"So, how've you been, buddy?" He clapped me on the back.

"Fine. What about you? I've barely talked to you since you moved." We were walking towards the commons area for lunch. I didn't eat at this time, so I didn't have anything with me.

"Good. I met a few mares and now have a foal on the way. So I'm excited for that." He answered.

We sat down across from each other at one of the tables.

"So, I had a question. Do you know where sugarcube corner is?" I asked him.

Oak had his sandwhich halfway into his mouth when I asked him and he stopped and pulled it out.

"Hey buddy. I'll let you in on a little secret. I know why you're going there and I don't think you should." He leaned in like he was about to tell me a secret. "That mare is bonkers. She talks fast, won't stop moving, and throws parties for complete strangers. Somehow, she figured out when my birthday is. You don't even know my birthday! And I've been friends with you since we started this line of work over a decade ago." He said finally, using his hands for emphasis.

"I didn't notice her talking fast. And it sounds like she just wants to have fun. I should at least humor her." I told him.

"Your funeral." He said as he took a bite out of his sandwhich. He then explained to me how to get there.

We talked about other things throughout our lunch period then went back to work.

I didn't do many of the duties that my actual job called for since I was busy getting to know the layout of all the construction area and how many resources I had at my disposal to use. I ended my day early and eventually made my way to sugarcube corner.

When I walked in, I was met with a shout of 'surprise' from the few ponies in the building. I counted about eight. The pink mare that had invited me was jumping up and down with a party hat on and a noise maker sticking out of her mouth.

"Ummm..." I didn't know how to respond to this.

She walked over to me in what closely resembled skipping.

"So, were you surprised?" She asked me.

"Yes, yes I was. But, why did you throw me a party? It isn't my birthday." I was very confused. Something about this mare just wasn't clicking in my mind. And that disturbed me.

"I know it isn't your birthday silly." She gasped very heavily then. "But if it was you'd be just like my friend Rainbow Dash who moved here on her birthday too! Wouldn't that be neat. But then I'd also have to throw you a 'birthday party' party on top of the 'welcome to ponyville' party-"

"Excuse me, but I never caught your name." I said, trying to get her out of her tangent.

"My name's Pinkie pie. What's yours?" She asked.

"Ignaous Sediment. It's nice to meet you Pinkie pie." I held out my hand and she grabbed it with a grip as strong as iron.

"You can call me Pinkie if you like. That's what everypony else calls me." She giggled.

"Alright then, Pinkie it is." I said. I finally noticed the actual lack of ponies in the store and also that I had never seen a single one of them before in my life.

"Do your parties always contain ponies the pony the party for doesn't know?" I asked her, curious. I realized I may have sounded rude, but she didn't seem to care.

"Almost all the time. But this actually isn't a lot of ponies compared to what it used to be." She sighed. "I remember when everypony used to come down to greet somepony. Now it's 'Pinkie, I'm sorry' and 'Pinkie, I'm busy' and they all have things to do." Not once had she sounded hurt or angry. Just a little sad that no pony came to the party, yet she never lost that smile. Weird.

"Well, if you want to plan another party, count me in as long as it's not in the middle of the day." I told her, trying to make her feel better.

"Really?! That's fantastic." She jumped up and down then hugged me. It was an awkward hug since I came up to her nose, so my face was squished into her neck and my neck almost forced into the middle of her breasts.

After a minute, I realized I couldn't breathe and tried to wiggle out of it. She noticed and let me go.

"Dear Celestia. When you hug, you really mean it." I said. She giggled a little bit.

"Come on. I baked a cake and I want you to try it." She motioned for me to follow her.

We walked over to a table where a rather elegent and delicious looking cake sat among some other types of very delicious looking food.

"When did you make all of this?" I asked her. There was no way she could make all of this in one day and set it out and decorate. It was impossible.

"I stayed up all night and did it." She said.

"You did, why? You didn't even know my name until a few moments ago." I asked her, incredelous.

"Silly, I don't have to know your name to throw you a party. I just do it because it's fun." She said, her hands clasped firmly behind her like a butler. I finally noticed that her clothes looked a little more ruffled than they should and there were a few small stains here and there, and that they were the same ones that she had been wearing when I had met her at the train station.

"I can't believe you stayed up all night to bake for me... Thank you." I said. I didn't know how else to respond.

"Oh it's no problem." She said.

After that, we had some cake and talked a little bit more about ponyville. After a little while though, I left after helping her clean up. She was a nice mare. One of the nicer ones I had met at least.

I was still stupified that she had stayed up all night to prepare a party for me. Since I was from the city, that kind of hospitality was non-existant. Even between friends. It was jarring to say the least, but I could respect that. She wanted to make ponies feel welcome.

I went to bed feeling happy that I had made a friend like her in this town. If I could even call her that.

* * *

 **A/N: I keep a very strict timeline for reference for myself and it is also a very real possibility for me to screw up the calender. I am very bad with them. I can also almost gaurantee that I will misspell this main character's name at some point. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of 'A new Perspective'. Any and all questions that are either sent to me through a review or a PM I will gladly answer. As long as it doesn't give away too much plot. See ya on the flip side.**


	2. Chapter 2: Ignaous' Job, Pinkie's Party

**June 15th (Wednesday)**

I woke up much the same as I did yesterday and managed the same routine, although I was a little worn out from the party.

I showered, dressed myself, and packed a lunch in case I was hungry later.

I left at eight thirty like yesterday and arrived about the same time. I was glad. Getting used to this schedule wasn't going to be as painful as I had originally thought.

As I walked among the workers, I began thinking about that party mare and what she did. I just couldn't get her out of my head it seemed. Something about her both intrigued me and terrified me, I just couldn't figure out what. Due to this, I was almost smacked in the head by a stallion carrying a beam. I moved my head just in time to avoid being nicked by the metal girder.

I recognized it as piece twenty seven dash CB. Meant to be one of the main floor beams for a food factory's employee lounge.

I continued my path to the control building. Today, I would begin drawing up and testing designs for more buildings. I had found out that some of the companies and private people we were working for had some odd tastes for their buildings. I remembered one wanted a trapazoid to be a big part of the design. Even though that was high risk, potentially structurally unsound and just, well, stupid to say the least. And that was just one of many oddities.

I arrived at the control building and worked my way to my office past several other project leaders who were busy with their own tasks.

I walked in and started the somewhat grueling process of my job for the next seven hours. Sure, I only worked four days a week, and I was paid fairly well, but after almost ten years of the same job? It becomes exhausting very quickly.

I never really had as much fun as I used to. I didn't get that same rush as I used to when I made a breakthrough in a design. Work had become, well, work.

As I toiled away on dumb ideas for designs for buildings, I thought about what I would be doing afterward, and when lunch rolled around, I was jarred out of my thoughts and job by Oak.

"Hey buddy. It's lunch time. I want to know how your time with that freaky pony went." He said with a laugh.

"She isn't freaky, Oak. I actually think she's rather kind. So I'd prefer if you didn't call her 'freaky'." I scolded him. I stood up and grabbed my lunch box.

"Jeez, sorry dude. I didn't know you were in love with her." He teased me after his apology.

I walked past him out the door.

"I don't like her like that." I told him calmly. "I see her as a friend, at best, since I don't know her that well."

"Alright then. Moving past that, I see you brought a lunch today. That's so unlike you." He said.

"The party she threw kind of wore me out so I decided to bring one in case I was hungry. It turns out, I kind of am." I said while patting my stomach.

We walked over to the lunch table and sat down across from each other.

"So, how was the party?" He asked.

"It was fun. There weren't many ponies there and I didn't know any of them, but that didn't matter to me." I explained.

"Did you go when she invited you for one?" I asked him.

"No, she creeped me out. I wasn't going to get within ten feet of her. Still not going to." He said.

"I don't think that way, but that's your business. Not mine."

The rest of lunch saw us talking about what the other had been doing in the past few years we hadn't seen the other.

Lunch concluded and we went back to work. A few hours later, I finished my day and went home.

I realized I still didn't have much food, so I grabbed my bank card and headed out.

I asked a few ponies where all the stores that sold food were and they looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently, regular food was sold at stalls here. They pointed me in the right direction and I thanked them.

I worked my way over to them. I thought about what I would need to get. I would need some vegetables, fruit, and some meat for tonight. I didn't really have a sweet tooth so that was all I needed.

I soon found a stall selling some fruit and got in line for it.

After a moment, I realized who was in front of me.

"Pinkie?" I asked, shocked that I would run into her here.

She turned around. "Hi!" She didn't seemed surprised at all.

"You're picking up fruit?" I asked. She nodded.

"I'm planning another party and I know not everypony likes sweets so I thought 'what does everypony love without a doubt?' then it came to me, fruit! By the way, do you want to come? It's tomorrow."

"Uh...sure." I said. I remembered the way to sugar cube corner although it was just the tiniest bit foggy in my mind.

"Fantastic!" She said. As the line slowly but surely moved up, we talked, well, Pinkie talked about the party and what she was going to do for it.

Eventually we were at the fruit stall and bought our fruit and went our seperate ways. Me to go find some other groceries, and Pinkie to pick up more things for her party.

 **June 16th (Thursday)**

I had my same routine today as I had yesterday. Woke up, went to work, talked with Oak during lunch, then went home.

However, when I got home, I got ready for the party. I changed out of my work clothes and put on some clothes that would be suitable for a party.

I left the house and arrived at sugar cube corner. Before I could walk in, Pinkie flew out of the door and grabbed me, pulling me inside.

"Hi! You actually made it. That's fantastic." She said happily.

I looked around to see that not everything seemed to be in the proper place yet.

"Would you like some help? It doesn't look like everything is done." I offered.

She beamed at me and nodded.

"You try and get done what you can out here while I finish the cake." She said. She turned around and rushed into the kitchen.

I looked around and took a quick look at the room and the party supplies that were left. There were some streamers, birthday cards, ballons and even a disco ball. That kind of threw me through a loop.

Yet, I raised up my hands and closed my eyes, envisioning the decorations all in their rightful places. I felt my horn heat up with the familiar burn of magic. It didn't feel bad, it actually felt great. And my magic was a golden color that just wasn't as lustreous as Princess Celestia's.

Within a minute or two, all the decorations were set up and I was done.

I lowered my hands and waited for Pinkie.

I didn't have to wait long as she came running out of the door. She pushed me backward and then leaped backwards herself as the disco ball came crashing down.

I quickly threw my hands up and put a bubble around the flying debris, making sure it didn't hurt either of us or go any farther.

When I had stopped the last piece. I lowered my hands and looked up at Pinkie, the pieces of the ball coming to rest on the floor. "How did you know it was going to fall?"

She just giggled and held up her tail. "It's my Pinkie sense. When my tail shakes, something is going to fall. So, when my tail shook, I remembered the disco ball and came galloping out here."

I felt kind of bad for breaking her disco ball. "Sorry about not setting it up right." I told her.

"Oh that's fine. I got a dozen more up in my room." She said.

I just chuckled and then stopped. "Wait, what?"

She turned around and threw her head back to look at me. "Nothing." She said in a singsong voice.

I was left speechless while she walked back into the kitchen.

Pinkie sense? I didn't understand that at all. Was she psychic? No, she was only an earth mare. This didn't make anymore sense, and that just made my fascination and terror of her all the more evident. And strong.

A moment later, she walked back out with the cake. On it was a message that said 'Welcome to Ponyville!'.

"How many other ponies are coming?" I asked her.

"Don't know. We'll just have to wait and see." She turned around and started walking over to one of the booths. "Most of them will show up in the next few minutes. And the mare the party is for will be here a little while after that." She explained as she and I sat down.

"So-" I started while I looked around. "What is this place? What do you do here besides parties?" I asked her.

"This is a bakery. Everything under the sun that's sweet and delicious I make here." She said.

"So, did you open this place yourself, or do you have a partner?"

"Well, this wasn't mine to begin with. It used to belong to this family, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and their foals, but they left it to me when they left about a year ago. They went to help out Mr. Cake's brother when he opened his own bakery shop. Now, the whole family lives there, running the bakery. So, now it's all mine." She said. It was the first time I had heard her even the least bit sad.

"Do you miss them?"

She sighed. "Yeah, I miss them a lot. Especially Pumpkin and Pound cake. They used to call me auntie Pinkie. I'd play with them all the time when I wasn't with my friends or helping out here. Now, it's just me."

She gestured with her arms to the inside of the building. "All just me."

We didn't talk much after that. Just waited. And waited.

Nopony came.

Eventually Pinkie stood up and walked over to the food. She started by grabbing things that would have to be put in a refrigerator so they wouldn't spoil.

I got up and went after her. I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Pinkie, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine." She didn't sound fine. But I didn't know her well enough to pry. I might just get on her nerves.

I went back to the table and grabbed some more things that would have to go into the fridge.

I passed Pinkie on the way and she looked almost distraught. I had no idea these parties were so important to her.

I worked my way to the kitchen and found there were multiple freezers and fridges. While I was deciding on which one to put the stuff in, Pinkie walked in.

"Here, I was putting them in this one." She opened the door to the third fridge and we placed our things in.

For the next ten minutes, I helped her put away food that was meant to entertain somewhere up to twenty plus guests. And the more we put away, the sadder Pinkie became. I helped her take down the party decorations and was ready to leave about twenty minutes later.

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked her. I was facing her from outside her door. Her head was looking down and her hand was clasped around her wrist.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She said.

"Alright." I turned around and started walking home. She was not alright, but what could I do? I was barely an acquantience to her. It's not like we were old friends. I didn't know how to cheer her up and make her happy again. I guess time would have to do that.

* * *

 **A/N: So my goal for this story is ten chapters. It took me a few hours, but I drafted up an outline (which is only the second time I've ever done that) and have actually implemented it into this chapter. The bad thing? I've already deviated from it. Pinkie wasn't supposed to be sad. Oops. It's not very detailed, only having important plot points, but it will do. See ya on the flip side.**


	3. Chapter 3: Freak Out

**A/N: Twilight has a kid. Stuff happens when you jam four stories into the same universe all happening over two and half years in universe (and when the story (involving Twilight) is the one where the writer wasn't a very good writer). Sorry if you don't like that but it's for a bigger cause.**

* * *

 **June 19th (Sunday)**

I hadn't seen Pinkie since the party and I still felt awful for leaving her like that. I had been trying to think of something that would cheer her up, but couldn't think of anything. Mostly due to the other thing on my mind: Her Pinkie sense. That, and only having known her for a week. That kind of hurt me.

Maybe I could help her by getting to know her better. That seemed like the best option. I was off today and it was still pretty early in the morning.

I could go 'invite her out on the town' as the saying went. Although I didn't know how she would take it. Would she take it as creepy? Or as a symbol of affection? She could take it badly although I doubt she would. Aaaah! Too many possibilities. Not enough certanties. It was absolutely frustrating. The last thing I wanted to do was to come off as anything other than concerned or friendly.

But what other choice did I have except to not pay attention? That option would make me feel the worst.

I sighed to myself and stood up. I grabbed my bank card and walked out of my house, thinking of what I would do.

Before I knew it, I was at her bakery slash house. I raised my hand up to knock on her door but it opened before I could.

"Hi, Ignaous!" She said happily. I was at a loss for words. Apparently she was fine. But now what? It took me a second to get my bearings.

"Hi...Pinkie. How did you know it was me?" I asked her. That question being the only thing my mind could grasp at the moment.

She raised her hands up and started moving them in circles while lowering her head. "I have the immortal being squeekers inside my body and he gives me a sixth sense." She said the last part in a whisper.

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"I'm kidding silly. I saw you through the window." She pointed at a large window to my right that showed one of the booths and a mostly finished breakfast on the table.

"Oh." I said while staring at it.

"So, what's up?" She asked me. I noticed her hands were clasped behind her back.

"I... uh" I was still reeling from squeekers. "Wanted to know if you wanted to do something." There you go mind! Back on top.

"Sure! Just let me clean up my breakfast." She disappeared back into the bakery and came back a few moments later.

"So, what did you want to do?" She asked.

Something was wrong with me. Assuming things about her, not paying attention, and not planning ahead. This mare was messing with my mind.

"I don't know." I answered. I was trying to think of something but couldn't. I'd only been in this town a week. This went south really fast.

"We can go visit my friends." She suggested. She wanted me to visit her friends? It was unorthodox, but it was something.

"Alright."

She started walking without saying anything else. I had to gallop a little bit to catch up with her.

We walked through town and eventually arrived at a very large tree.

"This is my friend Twilight's house. Come on." She said. She opened the door and gasped.

"Lightening!" She rushed through the door and inside.

"Lightening?" I asked myself as I looked up at the sky. I took a step forward but didn't go in. I didn't know this mare. What shocked me was the sight of Pinkie hugging to death a pegasus foal while he was saying he couldn't breathe. But what caught my attention next was the three mares sitting and staring at Pinkie. Well, two of them anyways.

It was princess Celestia and Luna sitting on Twilight's couch and I could only assume the purple unicorn was Twilight herself. Princess Luna and Twilight were staring at Pinkie but princess Celestia was staring at me with a blank face.

I was interrupted out of my thoughts by an 'Auntie Pinkie, I can't breathe' from the foal.

"Oops. Sorry." She said and let him down. He took a second to catch his breathe.

I felt completely out of place here. The princess was the only one who had noticed my presence and her stare was excruciatingly unnerving.

Pinkie eventually realized why she was here and tore her gaze away from the foal.

"Ooh Twilight. I want you to meet my friend. His name is Ignaous." She pulled Twilight out of her seat and dragged her over to me.

We stood almost face to face, I for once being the taller one.

"Hello." I said awkwardly while raising my hand. She took it. "Hi. I'm sorry, please come in."

I nodded and followed her inside.

Now both the princesses were staring at me, although princess Luna seemed less insistent on it. More like she had just noticed me.

"Hello Princess Celestia, Princess Luna." I bowed my head.

I heard princess Luna laugh a little bit and when I raised my head, both were smiling.

"You don't have to be so formal with us. Any friend of Pinkie Pie's is a friend of ours." Celestia said. Instead of comforting me, that made me feel more high strung.

I was interested, however, on why they were here, and almost as if she had read my mind, Celestia answered.

"My sister and I are visiting my old pupil." She explained. Twilight was her student? So she was Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic.

It hit me right then and there. What had I gotten myself into? These were ponies who had the power and ability to take on Discord head to head. And win.

I was just a construction worker, I didn't fit in here. I was outclassed. Both in social standing and sheer importance.

I realized I was the only one left standing. Everypony else had sat down, even the foal, and now they were all looking at me.

I quickly sat down next to Pinkie with a quiet 'I'm sorry'. Everypony waved it off and started up a discussion. However, I couldn't focus on it. I was too nervous. If this was _the_ Twilight sparkle, then that meant Pinkie was an element of harmony too. Heck, the foal had called her 'Auntie' Pinkie. Only ponies who were extremely close friends had their foals call each other those types of things. And I could only assume that the rest of her friends that she wanted to introduce me to, were the other elements of harmony.

What in Celestia's Equestria was I going to do? I don't think I could handle spending a day with the elements of harmony. It'd be too much. Way too much.

I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked over to see everypony looking at me. "Are you okay, Ignaous?" Pinkie asked me with a worried look.

"Uh... y-yeah. I'm fine." I told her. I could tell she didn't believe it.

"I... I have to go. I'll talk to you later, Pinkie." I said as I quickly got up. I walked to the door and opened it. Before I closed it, I thanked Twilight for inviting me in. I quickly walked away from the building and into the nearest alley.

I slumped against a wall in the middle of it.

I didn't belong in there. I can't be her friend. I was just... me. It was irrational to think that I could be friends with an element of harmony. Purely and simply irrational.

I took a few minutes to calm down. I hadn't realized I had gotten so worked up.

I looked up but couldn't see the sun. The shadows were bigger on my wall, so that meant the sun was behind me. So that meant it was still morning.

I was startled once more by another hand on my shoulder. I jumped away from it and saw Pinkie.

"What's wrong? Did I do something?" She asked me.

It took me a minute to get my bearings.

However, I couldn't say anything to her, my mind wouldn't work.

"Are you... are you scared of me?" She asked, not believing her own question.

"I'm..." I sighed trying to get my thoughts together. "I'm not scared of you. I'm not scared at all. It's just that you're an element of harmony and I'm a construction worker. Friendships like ours don't happen. It's like if I tried to be friends with the princesses. It wouldn't be appropriate." I explained to her.

"Ignaous, I'm friends with everypony! It doesn't matter who you are. We are all friends. And none of us feel we are better than anypony else. Well, except for Rainbow Dash, but she's Rainbow Dash."

"But still-" I tried reasoning with her, but she cut me off.

"There has to be a way for me to convince you." She begged. How she made it peppy, I didn't understand.

Why does she want to be my friend so bad? I had no clue. I wanted to be her friend, but it wouldn't be right. Yet she didn't seem to care. I was the only one who did. Maybe I could warm up to the idea; but I had to have time to think.

"Maybe we could go out for dinner. I will pick you up at sugarcube corner?" I asked. This would help me warm up to the idea and also help me accomplish my original task: getting to know her better.

"Ok, but where are we going?" She asked me with a smile.

"I didn't think of that." I told her.

She gasped. "I know! Let's go to the hay bucket. It's this nice restaurant that does classy things after seven thirty. That would be perfect and the food is soooo good." She seemed to visibly tingle at the mention of food.

"Alright." I didn't know what else to say after that. We parted ways after a little bit and I went home.

I walked into my house and sat down in a chair. I put my head in my hands and started thinking. And thinking. I sat there for hours until I could come to grips with my situation.

An acual, honest to goodness element of harmony wanted to be my friend; and I was taking her out to dinner at a place called the hay bucket. It sounded absurd.

What would be talk about past normal things like work and family? Would I offend her in some way? How would I get over my nervousness?

All these questions and more just kept repeating in my mind with no answers or plans. Nothing. It was more infuriating than disconcerting. I always had answers. Always. And now, I didn't. Pure and simple.

I sighed. The best I could do was to just wing it and see what happened.

I looked at the clock and saw it was already seven. Where had the time gone? I spent almost ten and half hours thinking about this and the only answer or plan that I could think of was 'wing it'?!

I swallowed my frustration and ran to my room. I rummaged around through my closet till I found my suit. I sniffed it and it smelled pretty bad. I didn't know why since I didn't wear it that often. Then again, I never washed it either.

I grabbed some cologne that I hadn't had a chance to use yet. I don't know why my younger sister always wanted me to be classy. She had gotten me the suit too. Although, I was singing her praises right now. Without her, I would be extremely unprepared for something like this.

I sprayed the cologne once on myself and once on the pants and once on the inside of the jacket.

I quickly undressed and put it on. I checked the clock and saw it had been ten minutes.

I grabbed my bank card and quickly rushed out and towards sugar cube corner, not even hesitating, just worrying that I would be late.

I arrived about fifteen minutes later, worn out and with a stitch in my side.

I was catching my breath when the door opened. And with that, I lost it again. She had on a form fitting purple sequine dress and her hair was just barely being held together in a ponytail by an extra heavy duty, purple scrunchie.

"Dear Celestia you're beautiful." I accidentally whispered. She giggled.

"You look nice too." She walked up and hmm'd, studying me. She reached out and started undoing my buttons.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"They're off by two. How you managed that I have absolutely no idea. Unless you _wanted_ me to do this?" She said the last part with a smirk, hinting at her joke.

"I was in a hurry. Sorry." After she had finished up with that, she put a pocket back in, helped me reloop my belt, and fix my tie. I hadn't known I had messed up putting a simple suit on so badly.

At one point during the belt relooping though, her hair had exploded and sent the scrunchy flying right into my nose. That stung, but it wasn't too bad.

"There." She said with a smile as she finished with the tie.

"Is that all?" I asked her, trying to look myself over. "I don't feel like anything else is off."

"Not that I can see. Come on, I'm starving." She said as she pulled me along.

We arrived at the restaurant.

She pulled me inside and over to the booth for check in.

The stallion behind it smiled. He couldn't have been more than seventeen years old. What was he doing here?

"Hi, Pinkie. I'm surprised, you never come here this late. Who's the lucky stallion?" He asked.

Pinkie laughed. "His name is Ignaous, and he's just a friend." She said.

"You know, the manager still loves you for the free birthday party you threw for his little girl. If you want, he would probably give you half off and I could seat you right now." He said. I looked over to see a waiting bench with about half a dozen families and couples. Pinkie noticed them too.

"No. I think we should wait our turn. What do you think?" She asked me.

"You're right. These ponies were here before us." I agreed.

"Alright, if you say so. Just sit down and we will be able to seat you in about twenty minutes, hopefully." He said.

As we walked over and sat down on the bench, I couldn't help but notice how calm I was. I didn't feel like I didn't belong here with her. I felt like we were friends. Nothing more, nothing less.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" She said happily, pushing my shoulder a little bit to get my attention.

"What?" I asked, startled out of my thoughts.

"That is why you wanted to do something with me today, wasn't it? Talk." She explained with a smile.

"Yeah. Well let's start on simple things. Do you have any siblings or foals? I didn't see anypony at the bakery."

"I have two older sisters and one younger sister. And no-"She laughed. "I don't have any foals. I've thought about it but was never quite ready." She answered openly. I was suprised she gave me an explanation as to why. Most ponies kept that secret.

"What about you?" She asked.

"I have an older sister and a younger sister. I don't really talk to the older one much, but I'm close to the younger one. She's the one who made sure I was ready for tonight. Both the suit, tie, and cologne were things she has given me throughout the years." I answered, remembering back to the occasions she gave them to me.

"And I don't have any foals either. Got tricked into almost giving a mare one, but I found out and cut her out of my life." I told her. If she was going to be open with me, I was going to be open with her.

"In the alley, you said something about being in construction, what do you do?"

And the night when on like that. They were eventually ready to seat us about forty five minutes later, but we had lost our appetites by then and went back to Pinkie's place. We talked there for about another hour, and I eventually went home around nine thirty.

* * *

 **A/N: So there really is no point to me having an outline. I have to take big and grandiose turns to get back to the plot points I've already laid out for myself. Hell, this chapter alone (with the way it was going before I turned it around) would've already obliterated my original plot. Oh well, I guess that then makes it better for you guys. You get a longer story. And I apologize for my Pinkie. I don't do any of the main six perfectly but Pinkie might be the worst for me. I just don't like peppy girls and it's hard to write a relationship between a character who is a lot like me mentally and Pinkie, my least favorite main character (sorry everyone). This is also the reason that this story has been in production since july 16th and I've only now just finished the third chapter (on august 5th (albeit at 12:48 am(don't judge me))). So this might be a longer running thing if I can't get the chapters done quick enough. Also (This next part is more recent), school will be starting for me next week (actually, one week exactly from the posting of this chapter), and I got a lot of stuff to get done. Fixing my schedule, making councilor appointments, and just getting situated for my last year of high school (College here I come. Yay.); so things might get a bit... wonky, for lack of a better word. I started writing during my junior year so it won't be hard to balance it, but still, just don't be worried if I'm late. I'm also taking a creative writing class, so hopefully that helps me get higher than a 'Mediocre at best' ranking. See ya on the flip side. (Sorry this one is super long)**


	4. Chapter 4: Inner Workings

**A/N: So someone pointed out to me that I never gave Ignaous a description. That is completely my bad. To be honest, I never really thought about that part. But when I think of him, I see his skin as grey with a very short, silvery whitish mane. I'm also posting this today because my internet is being a HUMONGOUS dick. It's cutting out every few minutes and the overall quality is getting worse and worse. I'm supposed to be switching soon, but I don't know how soon. So, I might as well put this out while I still can.**

 **June 24th (Friday)**

It had been almost a week since Pinkie and I's outing. We had hung out a few more times since then and Oak was now starting to tease me about it. But, today was one of my days off and I was going to enjoy it.

I didn't have to draw designs or magically test them, I didn't have to talk to anypony, and I didn't have to get dressed. Today was going to be good.

"Ignaaaaoooouuuussss." I heard a mare say in a sing song voice just before Pinkie opened my door to reveal herself.

I sighed internally. There went my day off, but I was looking forward to whatever she had planned.

"Hi, Pinkie."

"Remember how you said you wanted to know how I had planned and put together your party?" She asked.

"When did I say that?" I asked her in return.

She paused to think for a moment. "Maybe you didn't say it." She shook her head. "Anyways, come on. I want to show you."

She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my chair. "Pinkie, I'm not even dressed!" I told her. I was still only wearing some shorts and and night shirt. She seemed to ignore me and pulled me out the door, slamming it shut behind us.

She dragged me all through ponyville with other ponies not giving us a second look. It seemed this was a common occurance for them. I didn't know if that was a bad thing or a good thing. I eventually just decided to look at is a good since none of them were looking at me in my pajamas.

We arrived at sugar cube corner and she hauled me inside. She finally let go of my bruised wrist and shut the door.

She turned towards me and squeeled. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"So, what's first." I said as I caught my breath and adjusted myself.

"First we get started with a cake and then we can make other food while that's baking." She rushed into the kitchen and I followed behind her.

She started talking rather quickly and I was having a hard time keeping up. It sounded like she was saying cooking ingrediants. At least, that's what I assumed since she was putting things into a bowl rather quickly as well. I guess this was what everypony had been talking about when they said she had an 'Overdrive' feature.

When she was done putting everything in, she mixed it around but stopped.

She laughed a little bit. "Oops. I guess I did all of it. Can you start making some food bowls. Everything I usually put in them, and the bowls, should be in that cupboard over there. She pointed to a large cupboard above the ovens.

I walked over to it and opened it.

My eyes grew wide as I saw almost two dozen things that fell under the catagory: Munchie.

There were pretzels, several kinds of chips, crackers, cookies, and things I didn't even really have names for since my palate was rather small.

I saw the bowls stuffed in the corner, but they were clean. Really clean actually. They were in stacks of six with about six stacks total. That meant there were probably thirty six different kinds of munchies in this cupboard alone, if not more.

I grabbed one of the stacks and laid the bowls out in front of me. Grabbing a few different kinds of chips, I opened the bags and started pouring them in. When I was done with that, I used my hand to pick them up in my magic.

"Hey, Pinkie. Where do you want these?" I asked as I turned around.

She was right behind me and jumped back to avoid being hit by the bowls, but one of them got the pan with the cake batter in it, throwing it out of her hands.

Acting on instinct, I thrust out my other hand and grabbed the tray and the cake batter before it hit the ground. I put all the batter back in the tray and placed it on the counter.

Pinkie sighed in relief.

"Sorry." I apologized.

"It's alright." She said as she grabbed the tray from the counter.

"So, where DO you want these to go exactly?" I asked her again.

She thought about it for a second. "Just set them on the island." She pointed to the thing in the middle of the kitchen with a counter on top of it.

"Okay." I set them there and she put the cake in the oven.

"Are you going to be using all of the bowls?" I asked her.

"No, maybe just another stack." She answered.

"Then may I?" I asked as I lit up my hand with magic. It was slightly infuriating having to open those bags by hand and dump out all their goodies.

She nodded. "Thank you."

I thrust out my hand and the bags glowed with the color of my magic. I pulled out six different kinds and brought them over the counter. At the same time, my other hand grabbed a stack of bowls and brought them over, positioning them under the bags. I grabbed the top of the bags in the magic of my left hand while holding onto the main parts with my right. I moved my left index finger towards Pinkie and all the bags' tops came off. I turned them upside down and used my left hand to push out all the food.

Within five seconds, we had six more bowls of munchies ready, as apposed to six bowls in five minutes.

I heard Pinkie clapping. "What? It was just magic." I told her, confused by her excitement.

"No silly. That saved us A LOT of time." She explained.

"It did?"

"Well, not a ton, but every second helps!" She said.

"Come on, we have to do the decorations now." I followed her into the main part of the building.

She steered me in the direction of the party supplies.

"Come on. These always take the longest." She said.

She reached into an already open box and pulled out two rolls of streamers.

I looked around the building and located the best spots to put the streamers; namely, places that Pinkie didn't have to work hard to get too.

"May I again?" I asked her, lighting up my left hand. She looked like she didn't want me too.

"You sure are taking the fun out of it." She said.

"I won't if you don't want me to." I explained to her. She nodded and I walked over and grabbed two rolls for myself.

She showed me were she kept the holding points for them along the railings for the second floor balcony. She also showed me were she kept her stepping ladders.

We each grabbed one and set them up side by side above the cash register.

We each hung one color up, mine being orange and her's being purple, on a nail.

We started working our way around in opposite directions until about the halfway mark when something smacked me in the side of the head before somepony shouted 'look out!'.

I fell off the ladder and landed hard on my shoulder. I sat up and rubbed my head.

Pinkie rushed over to me. "I am so so so so so so so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you in the head." She apologized. "I meant for it to wrap around your shoulders."

"Like this?" I asked her as I grabbed the streamer and wrapped her in it. She gasped and laughed. I did too.

"Come on, let's get back to work." I told her. I unwound it from her and helped her up.

We continued around the second story railing. Finishing about an hour later.

"Wow, that took a long time. And with two ponies too." I remarked.

"Yup. Now, the disco ball. I actually would like it if you used your magic; only this time, send me up with it so I can hook it up." She suggested.

"Alright." I grabbed her in my magic and the disco ball.

"Oooh this feels different than when Twilight or Rarity does it." She laughed.

I raised both her and the disco ball up to the connector. I held her up there about fifteen minutes before my arms started giving out on me.

"Pinkie, you got about thirty seconds before I can't hold you up anymore." I warned her.

"You can put me down. I've been done for ten minutes." She told me.

I let her down and dropped my lead arms to my sides. "What? Why didn't you say anything?"

"You never asked." She responded. I drooped my head and sighed in exacerbation.

"Now the banner, and that should be easy. Come on." She said as she clapped me on the back.

I followed her and we moved the ladders. We walked up them with a banner between us. She nailed hers in first and then I nailed mine in.

The banner read 'Welcome to Ponyville!' and there was no name.

"Is that it for decorations?" I asked her.

"That's as much as I usually put up for this kind of party, but we can do more if you want to." She suggested. "No thanks, I'm good. This stuff is tiring."

Up next were the gift bags for each guest. Pinkie had invited everypony she could find, but she guessed only about thirty would show up. So, we had to make thirty bags. It was actually already around two and she suspected the gift bags, with each of us doing about twenty, would take about seven hours because of the effort she liked put into them. So, we got to work as quickly as we could.

It actually didn't take us seven hours, more like six and a half.

When I was done with the last bag, I looked at the clock and saw it was about eight forty-five.

"Wow-" I said as I messaged my fingers. "It's actually kind of late for me. I like to be asleep by eight." I said outloud.

"But you haven't eaten anything yet. If you go to bed, you might wake up with an upset tummy." Pinkie told me.

"I can make something when I get home." I yawned after saying this. I would be lucky just to get home.

"Come on, I'll make you something for helping me out." She said as she pulled me to my feet.

I was quickly becoming too tired to argue. I followed her into the kitchen where I watched her make a BLT for both her and me.

I grabbed some glasses from a cupboard while Pinkie grabbed some milk from a fridge.

I helped her put everything together and we walked out towards a booth and sat across from each other.

While we were eating, my eyes slowly started to close before I opened them. It happened again soon after, but I was a little more delayed in opening my eyes. The third time, my eyes didn't open. I heard a loud bang and then felt something draped over my shoulders.

I had fallen asleep.


	5. Chapter 5: Screw your Supervision

**June 25th (Saturday)**

"Ignaous. Igggnnnaaaaooouuuusss." I heard somepony say softly.

"Himinaslby" I said, essentially still asleep.

"Ignaous, the party will start soon. You have to get ready." Then, something started to gently shake me.

When I still wouldn't wake up, something banged on the table.

My head shot straight up. "I wasn't sleeping on the job again." I looked around for the foreman. I only saw Pinkie and the party decorations.

I wiped the drool off of my face and looked at Pinkie.

"What happened?" I asked her while rubbing my stiff neck.

"You passed out on the table last night and I didn't have the heart to wake you. You just looked sooooo tired." She said. With each word, she did her inch by inch close up thing, so now she was staring me right in the eyes.

"Uh, okay." I said.

"The party will start soon so you should probably get ready." She reminded me.

"Holy hay!" I said. I was no where near ready. I stunk, my clothes were a mess, and I hadn't eaten anything substantial in over twenty four hours. Pinkie, on the other hand, looked pretty good for what she usually looked like during these things.

She backed up so I could get out of the booth.

She must have seen how distressed I looked because she spoke up. "You can get ready here." She suggested. "I can have your clothes washed and ready to go by the time you're done in the shower."

"Really? You think these are fine for the party?" I looked down at my clothes. Some old shorts and a blue night shirt.

"Yeah, there fine. You know how I usually look." She grabbed my hand and pulled me up to the second floor. She pushed me in the bathroom but left a crack in it that her hand stuck out of.

"Are you sure you want to wash my clothes? They probably smell pretty bad."

"It's fine." She said.

"Alright. If you say so." I started undressing and handed my clothes, in a bundle, to her. Her hand disappeared and the door closed. I hopped into the shower and did everything that I had to do.

I got out of it and dried myself off and started waiting for my clothes.

Pinkie brought them back about five minutes later and handed them to me.

I put them on and came out of the bathroom.

"Ponies are already here for the party." Pinkie said as we walked down the stairs.

When we arrived downstairs, I scanned the small crowd of ponies but didn't find anypony that I knew or was friends with. I guess it would just be me and Pinkie again. After, you know, she was done with all her hostess duties.

"Is this all that you think will come?" I asked her.

"No, I think a lot more will be coming." She answered.

We waited a little while for the rest of the guests to arrive and, around three, the pony the party was for, came.

Everypony yelled surprised and she looked shocked. I didn't catch a good glimpse of her so I didn't know what she looked like.

The party went on for a few hours and I went home after forcefully helping Pinkie clean up. She hadn't wanted me to help, but I didn't give her a choice. I would see this party through to the end.

I arrived at my house and thumped onto the bed. It had been a long two days without much relief. The only reason I had been able to make it through it, was because Pinkie had helped me.

When I was with a large group of ponies, or even one pony sometimes, I could get exhausted spending time with them. However, that never happened with Pinkie surprisingly. That was another thing that was peculiar around her.

After a little more time laying in my bed, I got up and took a shower and dressed myself for a good night's sleep. I didn't bother eating anything and slipped under the covers, ready for a night of a dead sleep.

I woke up the next morning around seven for work. I got out of bed and showered once more and got dressed in my work clothes. I had a feeling I would be needed for some construction today. That, and I didn't want to sit in my office all day again.

I ate breakfast and set off around eight, arriving soon after.

I went up to the foreman and asked him if he had anything I could be of use for.

He said to come find him in an hour for some supervisional tasks. I wouldn't be doing much, just making sure that no pony got hurt in case something went wrong. Apparently, the machines had been a little wonky lately. The magic that ran through them was running dry and we didn't have a unicorn on staff that was liscensed to charge them. Yet they couldn't stop working since they were already behind schedule. So, I would be the back up.

I went to my office and sat down.

I started leafing through different reports and designs, looking for one that would keep me occupied. I didn't find any that I wanted to start. This work was becoming more tedious and boring by the day. I didn't know how much longer I could stand it.

I started day dreaming and straightening out my desk. I was glad when an hour had passed since I had grown extremely bored.

I walked out of my office and looked for the foreman. Some work stallions sent me in his direction and I found him by three of the cranes. All of them being prepped to lift some materials up to the top of a fairly tall building. I hadn't been the one to design it, so I had no idea what it was for.

"And you're sure this is safe? Having three cranes lifting a lot of materials up at the same time with only me here as a precaution?" I asked him.

"You know we have to get this done as soon as possible. Since we can't cut corners in structural safety and design, it has to be time that's shortened. The more we get done in as little time as possible, the better."

I noticed he hadn't said yes or no. I would have to keep a sharp eye on both the cranes, the ponies on the ground, and the materials. He hadn't said it would be easy.

Ten minutes later, the all three cranes were ready to go.

I took a quick scan of the surrounding area, noting all the ponies in the vicinity and where they were.

The first crane, the one to the left of me, about fifteen feet away, started. It got up about ten feet before the second crane, about twelve feet in front of me, started. And finally, soon after, the third crane, which was to my right about twenty feet.

I watched each load go up and didn't see anything wrong.

I was just about to ask the foreman if there were going to be more loads when the first crane started tipping.

Some pony yelled and I immediatelly grabbed it in my magic, steadying it. However, the load had started swinging erratically and was too close to the second's load. It smashed into it and the beams being lifted up, came falling down. I sent a pulse of telekinesis at the ponies standing under it. It sent them flying, but they'd be fine. The beams crashed to the ground and one that I hadn't seen before, landed on the third crane. The driver climbed out as quickly as he could, but the load the third crane was carrying came flying towards the foreman and I.

I brought my free hand up and went to block the beams, but there were too many. I couldn't hold up the bubble and steady the first crane at the same time. Something had to give.

It was the bubble.

The beams came crashing down. I sent the foreman flying out of the way with my magic and brought up a personal field just as the beams reached me. I felt them break through and land on me.

I could feel my ribs cracking under the weight. Suddenly, everything stopped moving.

My chest felt like I had an elephant sitting on it and I couldn't feel my left arm. I tasted blood in my mouth and what little daylight I could see, was tinged red, telling me there was blood in my eye. My legs were more painful than my arm, so I could only assume that they weren't broken, but cracked.

After what felt like an eternity, the beams lifted off of me. I saw the face of a unicorn mare looking at me.

"I found him!" She called.

"Dear Celestia, Ignaous." She said as she pulled the beams off of me with her magic.

Suddenly, I heard more voices.

"We have to get him to a hospital." Was the last thing I heard before I blacked out.


	6. Chapter 6: Pinkie and a little Oak

**August 7th (Friday)**

I opened my eyes to see a hospital room. I tried sitting up, but felt hands on my shoulders keeping me down.

I looked over to my left to see Pinkie with concern on her face.

"What happened?" I croaked out. My mouth felt extremely dry.

She pressed a button that looked a lot like a nurse's caller.

"You've been out for almost two whole weeks. Something happened at your work but no pony will tell me what. I only found out when I hadn't seen you for a long time and asked around."

"Oh." I tried remembering back to what happened. I remembered talking to the foreman and some cranes, but nothing else.

A few minutes later, a doctor came in followed by Oak.

"How you feeling buddy?" He asked me. Then his eyes drifted to Pinkie and an emotion I didn't recognize, flashed across his face.

"Could be better." I answered him.

"Can you help me sit him up?" The doctor asked Oak.

"Of course." He said. He walked over to Pinkies side and helped me sit up.

The doctor ran through the usual check up processes, temperature, blood pressure, responsiveness, and the things she would usually check for in coma patients coming out of a coma.

She said I would be able to leave today if I wanted to, but she advised against it. She also said that I wouldn't be able to go to work for another two weeks. I was conflicted about that.

She left after everything was said and done and I was left alone with Oak and Pinkie.

"Oak, what happened to me?" I asked him as he sat down on the other side of me, away from Pinkie.

"You were helping the foreman with some safety precautions and then one thing led to another and some cross beams and poles meant for an outer frame, landed on you."

"Was anypony else hurt?" I asked him.

He sat back and crossed his arms. "Just you. You managed to get everypony out of the way. Besides you, the worst thing we had was a sprained ankle."

I sighed in relief. At least I had done my job.

I looked over to Pinkie and she seemed overly concerned.

"I'm fine, Pinkie." I told her.

She grabbed my hand and I felt a tingle. I didn't have much time to focus on it as she asked me something. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'll be as good as new in a few weeks and then we can set up another party for somepony if you want to."

I heard Oak scoff at the idea of me doing things with Pinkie.

"Are you okay, Oak?" Pinkie asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just weird seeing you hold his hand like you two are a thing." He said kind of angrily.

"Is it that much of a problem?" She asked in confusion. She still hadn't let my hand go.

"I just didn't realize you two were that close. That's all." He said with finality, signalling the end of the conversation; but Pinkie didn't notice.

"We are only friends. We aren't a couple, Oak." She tried to reassure him.

I was about to agree with her, but Oak backlashed.

"Please. You guys can't be 'friends' " He raised his hands up in air quotes. "After only knowing each other for a week or two." He turned his head away from us.

"We are friends. We spend a lot of time together and I like it." Pinkie said.

It was weird seeing them together. Oak was usually defensive and territorial with everything. And Pinkie was the complete opposite. She was more confused by the way Oak was acting than by the actual reasons for him to be acting that way in the first place.

"I like spending time with her too, Oak." I finally interjected between them.

"Well if you two like spending time together, I'll just leave."

I tried calling to him since I needed him to help me home, but he left and wouldn't listen.

"That was weird." Pinkie said after he was gone.

"Yeah. I knew he was kind of territorial, but not this much." I thought outloud.

'Well now what?' I asked myself. I didn't have Oak here to help me home and I didn't want to be a burden on Pinkie. She had a business to run while this was one of Oak's days off if what I had heard was true.

"Come on, I'll help you home." Pinkie said with a smile.

I looked over at her. "What?" I asked.

"Didn't you want to leave today?" She asked me, confused.

"Yeah, but you probably have to get home. You've been busy lately, haven't you?" I asked her. I remember business had started to pick up at the bakery before I had my accident. Although, that could have changed since then.

"Uh-huh. It's been really good lately. But I can help you home. What are friends for?"

She grabbed my arm and helped me out of the bed. I realized I was in a patients dress and had her turn around while I put on my clothes. Apparently, Oak hadn't brought me any normal clothes since the only things that were here were my work jeans and shirt.

My muscles felt fairly sore and stiff and my tough clothes didn't help with that, but I was sure I could make it back home.

Pinkie and I hobbled our way out of the room and down the hallway. We continued like this out of the hospital and down the street.

The hospital staff had offered me a wheelchair, but I thought it would be more trouble than it was worth with Ponyville's streets. Especially around the older part where the hospital was.

About half an hour later, we arrived at my house.

I checked my pocket for my keys and found them. I grabbed them out of my pocket and opened my door. Pinkie and I went inside and she helped me to the bedroom. She sat me on the bed and went rifling through my closet. What for, I had no idea.

"I'm not helpless." I told her.

"I know. But that was a long walk for someone who just spent two weeks in the hospital." She said as she looked through my bottoms.

"Thanks for helping me home. You really didn't have to go to all the trouble." I told her.

"Don't be silly. Like I said at the hospital, what are friends for?"

She finally found what she was looking for. She turned around and was holding up some pajama bottoms. A pair I hadn't worn in years but remembered to be very soft.

"Um... I don't need your help for that." I told her, pointing to the pottoms with a 'back off' look. I wasn't against her helping me. But I had to draw the line somewhere. We were only friends after all.

"Of course. I'll wait out in the living room."

She gave the bottoms to me and walked out of my room, closing the door behind her. I sat the bottoms down on the bed for when I would need them.

I stood up and took off my jeans, managing not to fall on my face a few times while doing it. I grabbed the bottoms and pulled them on.

I threw the jeans into my basket and opened the door to the hallway. I found Pinkie standing in the living room, rocking back and forth with her hands clasped behind her back and humming.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "You know you can sit down if you want to, right?"

"I know. But I felt like standing."

"Alright. If you say so." I walked over and sat down on the couch.

I leaned back and rubbed my face with my hands. It felt like a lot had happened in the hour since I had woken up. Oak had flipped out, that spark I felt when Pinkie had held my hand, and the walk home. All had their own things that were tiring. Mentally, Emotionally, and Physically, respectively.

I felt Pinkie sit down next to me and lay her elbow on the back of the couch by my head.

"Are you alright?" She asked me.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired." I told her.

"I didn't realize the walk was that long. Do you need something from the kitchen?" She asked me, worried.

"No, it's not just the walk... It's Oak, you, and... I guess the walk didn't help anything now that I think about it." Dear Celestia, did I just say that out loud?

My eyes shot open and I looked at Pinkie. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Pinkie, it's not like that. I'm not tired OF you. I'm really glad your here and I'm appreciate how much you've done. It's just... I don't know how to explain it." I consoled her.

She went from sobbing to curious at the drop of a pin.

"Explain what?" She asked me.

I debated on whether or not to tell her. I eventually came to the conclusion of: Why not?

I leaned my head back and looked up at the ceiling. "When you held my hand back at the hospital, you know, when we were talking to Oak, I felt something. Almost like a spark. I don't really know what to make of it and it's been driving me nuts."

I felt stupid. She probably thought I was a creep. Or creepy. I looked over to see that her cheeks were a little pinker than normal and her eyes were staring at the couch. I also realized her arm had moved from the back of the couch and now her hands were playing with each other in her lap.

"You don't think I'm weird do you? It's just, this hasn't happened before. That spark? I've never felt it. Not with my friends or family, and not with my marefriends. Ever."

When she didn't say anything, I became worried.

"Pinkie?"

Her head perked up like she had just heard me.

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?" I asked her, concerned.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. If you don't need anything else, I think I should go." She got up and was about to walk away, but decided against it and gave me a hug.

I awkwardly returned it.

A few seconds later, she pulled away and left. She didn't even say good-bye. Just left.

"So I guess it IS a bad thing." I told myself in disbelief.

I clutched my hair. "AHHHH!" I should have NEVER told her!

What was I going to do now?! She probably thought I hated her or something. That weird look on her face, the hug? That was a good-bye hug if I ever saw one!

I felt so stupid. I had just ruined one of my better friendships over a spark. I felt terrible. Absolutely terrible.

I sighed to myself.

Now what?

Do I let her be, or risk making it worse by going after her?

I couldn't even think about my decision since my body decided it for me.

I stood up way to fast and was hit by a wave of stiffness and pain.

"Now is not the time." I said to myself.

I managed to hobble over to the door and open it.

I took three steps outside and fell to my knees.

I looked around for her, but didn't see her anywhere.

I smashed my fist on the ground. I was too late. There was no way in Celestia's Equestria that I was going to catch up with her, let alone make it to Sugarcube Corner in this state.

I felt so frustrated.

I managed to stand up and get back into the house. I walked over to the couch and collapsed. The walk here had taken more out of me than I had thought. I put my head in my hands.

What was I going to do?


	7. Chapter 7: Magical Mentor

**A/N: Anybody who has been keeping track of the calendar since I've implemented it into my stories, may have noticed that everything in both this story, and 'A new Outlook', is in the wrong year. For some reason, all of my stories are in the year, calendar wise, 2012. So, everything before this is on the wrong day of the week. It's not a big deal, but I thought I would point it out. I'm also not going to go back and change everything because I hate calendars and would probably mess it up again. Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 **August 14th (Tuesday)**

I hadn't seen either Pinkie or Oak in over a week. Mostly since I hadn't been able to leave my house until two days ago; and only today had I woken up without some type of pain.

I had decided today was the day when I would talk to Pinkie. Whether my body felt like it or not.

I checked the time, around nine. She would definitely be up and about, but would she be home? That was the question.

I thought about it a little longer and said 'screw it, I'm going'; and if she's not there, then I'll wait.

I made sure I had all the essentials and walked out of the house. I actually got about three quarters there before anything started to ache, so I was grateful for that. And although it took me longer than usual, I finally made it half an hour after I had left my house.

I knocked on the door. Even though this was a shop, I felt weird coming in unannounced.

I waited a few minutes then knocked again.

It seemed like forever since Pinkie answered. She opened the door a little bit and looked out.

"Ignaous? Why are you knocking?" She asked as she opened the door all the way.

Maybe she noticed something in the way I was standing, but she suddenly grabbed my shoulders and steered me inside.

"Pinkie, I would really like to talk about-" I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence as she sat me down in a booth.

"You should rest, I'll get you something to eat." She said.

"Pinkie, I'd rather..." My sentence died in my throat as she had already disappeared into the kitchen.

I groaned.

She came back shortly with a sandwich and a glass of milk.

"Pinkie, we need to talk-" I tried again, but she stuffed the sandwich in my mouth and smiled.

She pushed on my jaw, making me take a bite of the sandwich. I was forced to chew and swallow before I could talk about it.

"Pinkie-"

"Try the milk, it's delicious." She said as she held up the glass of milk.

"Pinkie!" I yelled, frustrated.

She shrunk away at my outburst and put the milk down. She sat down opposite me in the booth.

"We need to talk." I told her.

"I want to know what happened. Why did you act that way? I thought you hated me at first, but remembered the hug. It was driving me crazy all week. What happened?" I asked her desperately.

"I..." She started, but somepony came in.

"Pinkie, we're here." Said a mare's voice.

I looked behind me towards the door and saw a rather plump, blue mare with a cupcake styled mane, and a rather tall, yellow stallion, both with suitcases by their feet. Behind them were two foals, a filly and colt, who were dragging suitcases through the door held open by the stallion.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie said happily. She jumped up from the table and launched herself forward, grabbing the both of them and pulling them into a tight hug.

"Pound and Pumpkin!" Pinkie shrieked with delight next.

She let Mr. and Mrs. Cake go and set her sights on the foals, scooping them up in her arms.

I heard them manage to get out a 'Hi, auntie Pinkie' while she squeezed the life out of them.

Soon, the stallion noticed me. "Who is this young stallion?" He asked as he walked over to me.

I stood up. He reached his hand out to me and I took it, shaking it. "My name is Ignaous Sediment," I told him.

"Nice to meet you, Ignaous. My name is Carrot Cake," He introduced himself. "This is my wife Cup Cake, and our foals, Pound and Pumpkin." He pointed to each member of his family as he said their names. We walked over to them.

"It's nice to meet you all. Pinkie has told me a little bit about you." I told them.

"It's nice to meet you, Ignaous. Are you Pinkie's stallionfriend?" She asked me.

"No ma'am, I'm just a friend." I told her, a little embarrassed.

She brought a hand up to her mouth and laughed a little bit. "I'm sorry, I just assumed."

All the while, Pinkie was standing there, not doing anything. The conversation dipped and I could feel it like a giant weight. It appeared everypony else did as well. It felt a little awkward because of what Pinkie and I were just discussing. Or, _trying_ to discuss.

"Um, did we interrupt something?" Mr. Cake asked with a concerned expression.

Pinkie shook her head, seemingly startled out of a daydream. "No, Ignaous was just leaving." She said. I felt like she had just slapped me.

"Really? He can't stay a little longer?" Mrs. Cake asked with a frown.

I was about to speak up, but Pinkie cut me off. "Yeah, he has other things he has to do."

She grabbed my hand in a rather soft grip and pulled me to the door. She opened it and pulled me in front of her. She practically pushed me out the door and was about to close it before I spoke up.

"Pinkie, wait." I grabbed the door with my hand before she could close it. She could probably easily wrestle it out of my grip and close it on my face, but she didn't.

I was at a loss for words.

She looked at me with sadness.

After a few moments of tension, she spoke up. "Come back tomorrow around noon. The Cakes have something in town they have to do and I'm watching the twins."

With that, she pulled the door closed.

I stood there, shocked. I soon shook out of it and started slowly walking home. I would have to wait until tomorrow at the very least to talk. And even then, we might not get a chance.

As I walked home, I started going through scenarios in my head about how I would bring it up. None of them helpful. All of them dumb.

I reached my home and went inside, my soreness hitting me like a brick once I sat down.

I eventually dozed off and woke up sometime in the afternoon. I got up slowly and went into my kitchen, checking the fridge.

I grabbed some ham and some bread off of the counter and threw together a sandwich. I grabbed a glass and put some water in it from the faucet.

Putting everything away, I went back outside to my couch and started eating my miserable dinner.

After I was done, I contemplated whether or not to take a shower. I decided against it. I went to my bedroom and changed, throwing on some old clothes.

I climbed into bed and fell asleep after a few hours of tossing and turning.

My dreams were uneventful and I woke up and looked at my clock.

About Eight-thirty in the morning.

I sighed. It would be awhile before I could go to Pinkie's and I had no idea what to do until then.

I swept my legs out from under my blanket and over the side of my bed. I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window. It looked like it was going to be warm today.

I stood up and walked over to my closet, looking through all of my clothes to see what I could sacrifice if the need arose. I rarely came home with cleanable clothes after visiting my older sister and her small army of foals.

I picked out an old, yet suitable orange shirt and brown pants that wouldn't be too hot for the day. I grabbed some boxers and brought everything to the bathroom.

I did my routine and walked out twenty minutes later feeling refreshed.

I brought my dirty clothes into my room and threw them into the basket.

Walking out of my room, I checked the time. About nine. Dear Celestia.

I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl from the cabinet. I set it down and started rummaging through my cupboards for the cereal. I found it and poured it in. I put it back as I walked towards the fridge. I grabbed the milk, poured it, and put it back.

Grabbing a spoon, I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.

I sat down on my couch and ate as slowly as I could. When I was done, I checked the time yet again. About nine forty-five.

Yet again, I sighed. I was kind of out of options. It was stupid of me to think that a shower and breakfast would eat up any more than two hours at the absolute most. If it did, I would never get anything done.

I took my bowl to the kitchen, rinsed it, and walked back into the living room. I went to the front door and opened it. I peeked my head out and looked to the right, towards the mailbox. It had a few letters, so I grabbed them.

I brought them inside and looked at them. Nothing really important but I still opened and read each of them.

I felt myself glancing at the clock every few minutes. It didn't help pass the time any faster, but it did make me take longer to read everything.

An hour later, I was done. I checked the clock for the last time. Eleven on the dot.

It would take me half an hour to get there, so that meant I had half an hour to kill. I had no idea what to do. I couldn't read anything in half an hour that I wouldn't get into, and I didn't really have any house work to do. Inside or out.

I groaned.

I started fidgeting around, making myself become entertained by the smallest of things. After an eternity, I realized that I could get going and left.

I walked as quickly as I would allow myself and reached Sugarcube corner.

I knocked on the door and Pinkie answered it, she let me inside and I saw that the place was somewhat trashed.

I felt my jaw drop a little bit at the sight.

"What happened?" I asked her when I shook myself out of it.

"The twins," She answered.

"What do you mean 'The twins'?" I asked incredulously. Now that I took a closer look at it, it looked like a little hurricane had come through here. There was food in places other than the booths, her party supplies were everywhere, there was paint peeling off in some spots, and everything that wasn't nailed down had been moved in some way.

"They're as energetic as I am, with the ability to destroy as easily as Discord," She explained.

"But why is the paint peeling off?" I asked her.

"Pumpkin is practicing a heat spell and didn't want to stop practicing. It won't be hard to fix," She told me.

"I didn't know foals could be this destructive," I told myself. Apparently, I was wrong.

I saw Pinkie nod out of the corner of my eye, "Yeah... Well, let's get to work!" She clapped her hands and I turned my head to see her smiling.

I walked inside and looked around for the twins. Pound cake was fiddling with a disco ball. I didn't know if he was trying to put it on or take it off. Either way, it probably wasn't a good idea to let him continue.

Pumpkin on the other hand was channeling her inner volcano and baking batter of some kind with her hands.

"Sweet Luna." I gawked at their destruction.

"Well don't just stand their, get them over here with your magic so I can introduce you." She said with a smile.

"Alright." I raised up my right hand, turned on my magic, and grabbed both of them and brought them over to Pinkie and I.

"Hey, what the heck?" Pound asked, angry for being torn away from his tampering. I was keeping a close eye on the disco ball to make sure it didn't fall on us.

"Ignaous is here to help me watch you guys." Pinkie explained.

"Pumpkin?" Pound said to his sister with a determined look on his face.

She looked at him and nodded.

Her horn started glowing and I felt her push her magic into mind to try and break it. If I was a weaker unicorn, that might have worked, but I'm no pushover. I easily pushed back her magic and she looked at me in shock.

"You're pretty talented for your age." I told her. "But you're still young and I'm no lightweight when it comes to power." I explained to her.

"Yeah, I've seen him do things that would surprise even Twilight." She told them.

Pound didn't seem to care about the analogy, only that his fun was ruined for now. Pumpkin on the other hand seemed really excited.

"Do you want me to show you some tricks?" I asked her with a smile. She nodded excitedly.

I let her down and gave Pound to Pinkie.

"Now you have to promise me to use your magic responsibly. You are extremely talented, but you shouldn't go around using that talent to destroy. You're not Discord after all, are you?" I started off. I wanted to know if my tips would do more harm than good.

She seemed to struggle with that a little bit before realization dawned on her. She nodded her head with an even bigger smile.

"Now, I want you to do what you just did again, ok?" I asked her.

"Ok. Ready." She said, bracing herself.

I grabbed her once again in my magic. Her horn lit up and I felt her magic seep into mine, intermingling. Her tactic was to disrupt my flow with her own power instead of force her way out. Clever. That kind of tactic allowed her to get out of the grip of potentially anypony if they weren't skilled enough, yet still keep a lot of her power in reserve.

"You have an excellent start, you just need to learn how to gauge your opponents power. A good way is to look at the brightness of their horn while they are suspending you. If the horn is dim, they're only using a small fraction of their magic to contain you. If it's extremely bright, they're using a lot of magic." I started off.

"Once you gauge their power, try and determine if they're underestimating you or if they know explicitly what they're doing. Once you know all that, you can find the best level of power to break out." I finished.

She nodded and started assessing me. I assumed she had already come to the conclusion that I was both powerful and knew what I was doing, but it was good that she was practicing judgement.

A few moments later, her horn lit up and she flowed her magic into mine, easily disrupting my flow. The bubble broke and she landed on the floor, beaming.

"Good job. Now that we have finesse out of the way, let's go for power. I want you to make a condensed sphere of magic about as big as a marble. Put as much as you can inside of it and tell me when you're ready."

She looked at me with confusion, but did as I asked. I guess she didn't understand what I had in store.

"Finished." She said a few minutes later.

"Ok." I raised up my hand and encapsulated her magic in mine, creating a film around the ball.

"Now break out." I told her. She smirked and her horn suddenly grew dimmer. The ball shrunk in size and morphed into a needle in a split second. It suddenly shot downwards toward the floor and through my film.

I looked at her in surprise.

"This is a standard power test for high level unicorns, but I've never seen any of them do it that way." This foal was something else.

"However, it IS a power test, not a flexibility test, so let's try it again." I told her.

She sighed a little bit, then made another ball and I made another film.

"Now, without transforming your magic too heavily, break out." I told her.

Her first instinct, like all the other unicorns I had seen do it, was to push straight out from all sides. It was a great way for the instructor to test his students' power. Pumpkin was about as powerful as I was at that age, although she was a lot more creative than I was.

After a few moments, she realized that wasn't going to work. She had half the puzzle already, the point. Now she just needed to put two and two together.

A few different attempts later, she did it the way I did when I took the test. She all of sudden shrunk her magic once more, but then pushed it out in the shape of a cube. However, she had the same density of magic throughout the entire thing.

She soon took another new approach, fully realizing what she should do. She shrunk the cube then brought it back up again with extremely condensed corners. She broke through the film in a matter of seconds and started jumping up and down in excitement.

"That's exactly how I did it when I took this test." I told her.

"So what else can you show me?" She asked.

"I think that's enough right now. You should always take proper care of your horn and right now it isn't doing so well." I pointed at her sparking horn and she looked up, frowning at it.

"Fine." She said, although she looked a little worried.

"Has anypony taught you proper horn maintenance?" I asked her, curious.

She shook her head. That would explain why she was all over the place with her magic.

"Here, I'll show in the mirror how to tell when your horn is at its limit." I told her. I motioned for her to follow me up to the guest bedroom.

I looked back and saw Pinkie smiling at me with her head in her hands. Her smile took me aback a little bit. It was the same kind of smile my mother always gave to me when she was happy and extremely proud at the same time.

I gave her a wave and she waved back.

I followed Pumpkin to the guest bedroom and stood her in front of the dresser mirror.

"Now, see these?" I asked as I knelt down to her level and pointed at the sparks.

She nodded.

"Those are sparks. They tell you when your horn is at your limit and they're very important to your health as a unicorn. Most unicorns can usually feel them, but I guess you didn't know about them until now, did you?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"Ok. Well, the best way to detect them until you can feel them is to put your hand on your horn like this." I showed her the motion with my own horn, clasping my index finger and thumb around the tip. She mimicked me with her own, but took her fingers away quickly.

"It's not usually that hot, is it?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"Now, do the same at the base of your horn." She moved her fingers and looked at me.

"It's really cold?" She said, confused.

"Mhm. When a horn tip is hot, that means it has just done strenuous magic. And when the base is cold, that means it's exhausted. Now, these things can happen on their own and you can keep using your horn sparingly if only one of them happens. However, if both happen, you have to stop immediately or you might hurt your horn; and that can take a very long time to heal. Otherwise, your horn will do everything else itself as long as you clean it properly."

"But when will it stop?" She asked.

"An hour or two at the most and you'll be ready to go in no time. Doesn't mean you should, but you can." I stood up and rubbed the top of her head.

"Come on. Let's go down and see your aunt and your brother." I told her.

"Ok!" She raced out of the room and I followed at a walk.

As I was coming down the stairs, I saw both Pumpkin and Pound rush into a booth that had a bunch of coloring materials on it.

I walked over to Pinkie and sat down.

"That was really nice of you." She said.

"A unicorn should know how to use their horn and how to care for it." I responded, looking at them.

"I think you'd make a great dad, Ignaous." She said. She sounded exhausted. That was new for me.

"Are you okay? You sound tir-" I stopped when I realized what she had just said. I looked back at her.

"What?" I asked.

"I think you'd be a really good dad." She said with her head in her hands and a smile on her face, looking at me.

I didn't really know how to respond to that. "Uh... thanks." I suddenly remembered why I came here and looked over at the twins. They were busy coloring. I looked back at Pinkie and cleared my throat.

"Pinkie, I want to talk." That caught her attention and she started to look nervous.

"I see. What did you want to talk about?" She asked.

"I want to talk about that spark. You seem to know more about it than I do. I want to understand it; so please, help me." I pleaded with her.

"I'll explain it over dinner tomorrow." She said with a finality I had yet to ever hear from her.

I was about to pry more, but Pumpkin came over and showed me a picture she drew. It was hard to make out, but I was pretty sure it was a manticore.

The rest of the day was filled with Pumpkin and Pound using us as entertainment. I was only able to get the details of around eight at the hay bucket before the cakes arrived and Pinkie practically forced me out.

* * *

 **A/N: I am extremely sorry for being missing for so long. Things have been hectic as hell lately since I'm gearing up for college (I'll be moving halfway across the U.S. in about two weeks (Driving, fun)), so I've just been swamped with that. On top of all that, this story just doesn't interest me all that much. That doesn't mean I'm not writing at my (perceived) best, but I just don't find the drive for it. So, because of that, I don't know when the next chapter is going to come out (it isn't even started yet). I'm hoping within the next three weeks, but no guarantees. See ya on the flip side.**


	8. Chapter 8: The Mare and the Stallion

**August 16th (Thursday) (Morning)**

I woke up a little sore from yesterday's antics.

Pumpkin told me she had gotten farther with her magic in that one day than she had in the past two years. I was happy for her, but told her she should be wary with her power. She had a lot of it and unicorn magic can corrupt.

Pound had stayed with Pinkie for the most part. He seemed to be rather fond of baking, and Pinkie had taught him some of her special recipes while Pumpkin and I were having unicorn practice.

'Enough thinking about it, I have to go to work' I thought to myself.

I looked over at the clock and saw that it was around eight. I was going to be late no matter what, so I decided I would take my time. It's not like I was all that important there.

It was then that I realized I was still on leave. I didn't have to go into work and I felt some sense of relief wash over me. I was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen. I had always been given the impression that ponies were supposed to love their jobs throughout their lives. Pinkie was just as old as I was and she had said to me on a few occasions that she was more excited for work these days than when she first started. Her passion had grown while mine was diminishing.

My older sister seemed content with her seamstress work and her husband worked for clockworks and he raved about how much he loved his job. Granted, he raved about everything, but still.

Shouldn't I love my job? I was good at it after all. Some people would say that my talents were actually wasted. I was considered a pony database of sorts. If I had seen the sketch plans for a building and had gone over the parts, they were stored away in my mind for recall at the drop of a hat. Ponies would often ask for my help when they became a little lost in the design plans.

I was also a pony calculator, being able to do complex equations in my head accurately and efficiently. My best subject was ratios for mixing. I could do that zonked out on delerium medication for mental patients. My geometry and trigonometry were also strong.

So shouldn't all that mean that I was essentially built for this type of work?

Maybe I should ask Pinkie.

There it was again. My thoughts immediately deferred to her. It was annoying to say the least. I'd be thinking about something and all of a sudden, she would pop in. It was getting ridiculous. Maybe it had something to do with that spark?

And then it hit me. I liked Pinkie Pie. I. Liked. Pinkie.

And she knew it before I did!

I grabbed my face with my hands and growled at my own emotional stupidity. Why did I like her? She was nothing like my past marefriends. They were all more like Pinkie's sister Maud. Unemotional and seemingly obsessed with their line of work. However, none of them had the sweet side that Maud seemed to possess. Pinkie had it too. I could see it with the twins and with the way she looked at me when I was playing with them. That sincere sweetness. Warmth.

But she was so different from me. Excitable, emotional, energetic, bombastic, outgoing... loud. I had hated that a few years ago. I couldn't stand anypony like that to save my life. The only other pony I liked that was anyway like that was my younger sister. She was seemingly cartoonish just like Pinkie.

I, on the other hand, was relatively quiet, unimpressive, and usually reserved. I wasn't shy, I just didn't need to be around other Ponies.

Except Pinkie. In fact, I wanted to see Pinkie right now. I wanted to get out of bed and walk to Sugarcube corner right now and talk with her. I didn't know what about, but I wanted to talk to her.

I had a feeling that my feelings for her were becoming more serious by the day. I wasn't in love with her, that was for sure, but it wasn't a simple crush anymore either.

Something hit my window above my bed, startling me. I looked up and saw nothing there. No cracks at least.

I got into a position to look out the window and saw that it was just some foals outside playing with a ball. One of them must have kicked it too hard.

I sighed and got out of bed.

'What am I going to do until I can get ready?' I thought to myself. No work, no friends, nothing to really do in the house. I had exhausted a lot of things while I was recovering. I had cleaned my house several times, finished unpacking all of my stuff, read every book I owned even though there wasn't that many, and I had finished most of my personal projects that I had been able to take along in the move.

Maybe I could go back to sleep. No, I'd never be able to.

I could take a walk. Yeah, that might work.

I grabbed some comfortable clothes and headed towards my bathroom. I took my shower but stopped when I saw the mirror.

I looked at my hair and then my eyes and finally settled on my horn. It's spirals swirling in the same direction as everypony else's. My thoughts from earlier about my job crept back into my head.

Sure, I was more powerful than many unicorns, but I didn't feel like I was using that power anymore. I had always helped with the physical construction of the buildings as well as the designing of them. I mixed concrete and paint, even helped in the glass works. I could split my consciousness with a spell I had developed. It gave me one Luna of a migraine after I was done, but I could cast it and hold it for at least a few minutes. It made construction rather easy and far less time consuming whenever I involved myself.

However, I just couldn't get over the fact that I didn't feel fulfilled anymore. I felt it every time I sat in that office. Sure, construction allowed me to use every facet of my intellect, but it just got too... easy, for lack of a better word. What used to take me hours in intellectual concentration when I first started now only took mere grains of focus to accomplish in a fraction of the time. I was too efficient for my own good and it was destroying my work ethic.

It might be time to move on, try something else; but what? What could give me the mental exercise that I longed for? The new experiences? The beginner's mindset?

My thoughts turned to Pinkie, but instead of them being about companionship it was different. Like my subconscious was telling me to look closer. What about Pinkie should I look closer at, though? She was an earth mare with a pink mane and tail. She was about average in height for her race. She was a little plumper than most earth mares I knew, but not by a large amount. I assumed she was really only that way because she ate a lot of sweets. It was the only thing that could give her that kind of body while still being so energetic. Hell, I had seen her down a whole cake in a matter of a few minut-...

Baking. Baking was what my sub-conscious was trying to tell me. It wasn't intellectually as demanding as my current official job, which was design. That required memorized formulas and hours of mathematical calculations to make sure nothing collapsed during the changing of the seasons, because of itself, or general wear and tear.

But it wasn't like I could be brain dead while baking. That also called for the memorization of recipes and accurate measurement. I didn't have a sweet tooth in the slightest, but I could always have someone... help... me. Brain, you clever son of tartarus. Pinkie could help me. If she would allow it, I could help her actually. She could teach me how to bake.

Maybe I could bring it up to her during dinner?

I rubbed my hands through my mane to startle myself out of this train of thought. I stepped into my shower and washed up.

I put on my walking clothes and stepped outside. I wouldn't be able to go far. My legs still weren't one hundred percent, but an hour or two wouldn't do me any harm.

I walked towards the town's library first. It was an alright distance away and would tell me if I was actually up for this.

I reached the library after about twenty minutes and did a self check. My legs were fine and so were my hooves. Time to keep going.

I decided to try the apple farm next. That was a bit farther, about half an hour. When I got there though, my legs weren't happy. I decided to give them a break and started heading home. On the way there I passed through the shopping district and spotted Oak at the carrot stall.

"Hello, Oak." I said to him as he was coming out of the line.

"Hi, Ignaous." He sounded angry.

"Is something wrong?" I asked him.

"No, I'm just surprised that pink mare isn't with you." He said.

"I'm actually supposed to go out with her tonight." I told him. "We have some things I want to discuss. Serious things." I wanted to confide in him. He was the only other pony I knew somewhat well in this town.

"What kind of serious things?" He asked. His tone was distressing to say the least. He hadn't dropped the venom in it since we started talking.

"More along the lines of personal serious. Why?" I asked him.

He exploded, "Because everytime I see you, I see her! Whether it's out in the streets, at stalls, she even visited you at work a few times before the accident. It's like you two are bonded at the hip and I'm bucking tired of it!" He said, sounding angrier the more he talked. "It's like you're mates or something! Are you?!"

"No, we're not. Why do you have such a problem with her?" I asked him.

"Because she's weird! She never shuts up, she's always smiling, she invites random strangers into her home, she may be clinically insane, she's fat, and she's ugly to boot."

I didn't know what came over me, but my fist connected with his lower jaw in a matter of a second. Oak, being an earth stallion, had almost a foot on me and was probably about a hundred and fifty pounds of muscle heavier; but something snapped in me once he was done with his little rant.

My measly punch didn't do much except knock him back a few steps. He looked at me in surprise and then anger.

He came towards me with his fist clenched. "You don't know what's good for yourself anymore, Ignaous. That mare is bad news and I'm going to show you." He threw a punch, but I grabbed his arm in my magic and stopped it dead.

"At this point, Oak, you're the problem. Ponies say to not break up a friendship over the possibility of a relationship, but in this case, I think it's the better option." I said to him, my own anger rising a little bit.

A crowd of ponies had gathered around us to see what was going on and they seemed to be enjoying what they were seeing.

I surrounded his whole body in magic and brought his face down to mine. "Until you can get over yourself and apologize to her, Oak, I don't want to see you again." I whispered to him.

I threw him back a couple of feet and then turned around, walking home.

I heard hoofsteps on the road and turned around and grabbed whomever was behind me. It was Oak, as I expected, with his fist outstretched mere inches from my face.

I gave him a disappointed glance before I brought him up, then back down into the road with one hand. There was a few cracks in the street once he landed, but he'd be fine. I levitated his basket over to his unconscious body and left.

I gave a lot of thought about what I had just done, but eventually settled on the point that it was the best option. Oak had become increasingly hostile every time he saw Pinkie. He wouldn't dare hurt her, and the fight was completely my fault, but that didn't stop me from worrying. The more I thought about how he talked about her, the angrier I got. Who was he to talk about her like that? He didn't know her. Hell, he avoided her for the most part.

I made my way home and checked the time, about one. I was out there a lot longer than I thought I was.

I decided to lay down for awhile to rest my legs and my emotions. I stripped my pants and shirt and fell face first into my pillow and bed. It only took about five minutes for me to pass out.

 **Same day (Evening)**

I woke up groggy and looked at the clock. It was about six-thirty. I got out of bed and decided to get ready. I wouldn't have a lot of down time since it usually took me about twenty minutes to get there. I showered and threw on my tux, which I had remembered to wash so it didn't smell like a pigpen. I spritzed on some cologne and was ready to go in about forty five minutes. I grabbed my keys and my bank card and left.

As I was walking, I made sure to recheck everything. I didn't want a repeat of last time especially if she had a scrunchie. I was good.

I arrived at Sugarcube corner and knocked. Mr. Cake opened the door.

"Well aren't you dressed up sharply, young colt. I guess you're the one who's going on a date with our Pinkie. Treat her nice ya hear?" He said with a smile. "Why don't you come in, she'll be down in just a second."

He stepped back to let me in. "Thank you."

I heard him close the door behind me and I took an inspection around the place. I saw that my magical band-aids to the walls had held up and there weren't any more things that had been destroyed by magic. I guess Pumpkin had taken my ramshackle teachings to heart.

It was about five minutes before Pinkie came out. Her hair wasn't done up at all, and I hadn't thought it would allow it, so that was the same. However, it was everything else that threw me.

A blue silk dress covered her entire body, even covering up her ankles. And no where to be found was the two or three inches of cleavage she always seemed to show. That was covered by a ballon necklace and the neck of the dress. She was a bit taller even since she was wearing modest heels.

I felt somepony grab my shoulders and give me a little shove forward. I almost tripped into her, but I caught myself.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught the clock. About Seven-forty.

"We actually have to get going right now." I said to her in slightly nervous tone.

"What?" She asked, not registering what I had just said.

"Sorry about killing the mood, but we really do have to go." I told her and grabbed her hand, pulling her along.

I turned around and walked towards the door.

"Bye Mr. and Mrs. Cake! Bye Pound! Bye Pumpkin!" I heard her call as we were going through the door.

"Why do we have to hurry?" She asked me once I pulled her into a slow jog.

"Because our reservation's at eight, which is in fifteen minutes." I explained.

She didn't respond, but I could tell she wasn't that worried about it.

I pulled her along until we were within sight of restaurant. I slowed to a walk so I could catch my breathe. I had a lot of stamina when it came to general building, but running? Not so much.

"Are you okay?" She asked me. I realized that I was wheezing a little bit and that my legs weren't doing too great.

"Yeah, I just need to catch my breathe and sit down for a moment." I told her.

We arrived at the restaurant and checked in. It was eight on the dot, so we were seated immediately.

I took a minute to catch my breathe and must have ordered while I was a little out of it, because our menus were gone and I had distinctly remembered seeing them when I sat down.

"So, I think I know what you wanted to talk about." She said to me. I waited for her to continue until I noticed that she looked uncomfortable.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked her to take her mind off of it.

She nodded in response.

"Can you teach me how to bake?" I asked her.

She looked a little surprised. "Sure. I can teach you how to bake. Any reason?"

"It's just... I'm not feeling it anymore at my job. Nothing's fun anymore and I'm bored mentally all the time. So I got to thinking, what else could I do that would utilize my talents? And I eventually settled on baking. Mainly thanks to you." I explained. I didn't know if it was the lighting or what, but I thought she blushed a little.

"Really? I helped you make that decision?" She asked.

"Yeah. Every time I kept thinking about it, I came back to you. So I took a closer look... and realized one of the reasons."

I cursed myself for losing my nerve halfway through. Now that it was just the two of us sitting together intimately, it suddenly became harder to talk about it.

It was at that moment that the waiter brought us our food. Apparently I had ordered a steak. Pinkie had ordered a salad.

With that, we both were happy to let the conversation die a little bit.

I started sawing into my steak when I noticed Pinkie looking at my right hand.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her. I then realized that I might have bruising where I hit Oak.

"How did you get those bruises? I've never seen any like that before." She asked.

"I um... I kind of decked Oak in the face earlier today." I explained, slightly embarrassed.

She looked taken aback. "Why would you hit him? I thought you two were friends." She said.

"Well, let's just say he voiced a rather unsavory opinion of you and I didn't like it." I said, sticking a piece of steak into my mouth, regretting having told her in the first place. I would have covered it with magic, but bruises had never occurred to me. That was the first real fist fight I had been in.

We ate in silence for the rest of the dinner.

When we were done with dessert, I paid and we left.

As we were walking back to Sugarcube corner, I glanced at Pinkie's figure. Sure, she was a little bigger than most mares I knew, but that didn't mean she wasn't beautiful. A little plumpness never hurt anypony.

We reached Sugarcube corner and stopped at the door. She turned around to look at me.

"So about what you wanted to talk about tonight. I think you already figured out what all that spark stuff meant." She said.

"Yeah, yeah I have... and how do you feel?" I asked her.

She leaned down and kissed me on my forehead.

"That we can do it if we wanted to." She said with a smile and a 'no duh' tone. She then pulled me into a death grip hug which I returned.

It felt like it lasted forever, but it was probably only around ten seconds or so.

"See you tomorrow, baker in training?" She asked me with a smirk, her hands on my shoulders.

"Definitely." I said, smiling.

 **Rainbow Dash's POV (On top of Sugarcube Corner)**

"Oooh, this is gonna be so much fun." I said to myself, squeeling a little bit watching Pinkie and her new stallionfriend. We finally had another player for the game; and three sets of teams would be perfect. I flew off into the night to get everything organized for the day after tomorrow.

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter will not come out like this one did. I am within a week of moving across the country and have no time to write it. Also, the next chapter contains sports, something which I haven't done yet. So we'll see how that works out. See ya on the flip side.**


	9. Chapter 9: Sport is the name of the Game

**A/N: This is a sports chapter. Now, for someone who has done action, I think I am equipped to do sports, but we will see about that. Now, I am introducing some of my old characters for some fun. Light Weight is Fluttershy's partner and a massive earth stallion. Green hair and a lighter shade of green for the skin. Thunder is a pegasus stallion with orange hair and white skin. Light Weight easily towers over all of them except Applejack, who is still shorter. It goes: Light Weight, Applejack, Pinkie, Thunder, then Rainbow Dash. Ignaous, Rarity, and Twilight are about the same height. Fluttershy is the shortest. This is here for reference since the game they are playing involves height (Not a lot, but enough for it to warrant this). The goals are soccer goals (football).**

* * *

 **Ponyville Park; August 18th (Saturday)**

I was standing in Ponyville park with Pinkie's friends and two other stallions who I didn't know very well along with Twilight's colt. We were apparently all here for a game that Rainbow Dash had come up with. I saw two goals about thirty feet apart from each other.

We were lined up and facing her while she held a brown ball the size of an orange.

"Let me explain the rules, everypony." She started. " The goal is to get this ball into your opponents goal. Depending on how we do the teams, the rules for getting it into the goal will change. So, how do you guys want to do teams? We can do it one earth pony, one pegasus, and one unicorn per team, or three earth ponies on a team, three pegasi on a team, and three unicorns on a team." She said.

I looked around at everypony that was assembled and noticed that there were indeed three unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies here.

"I think it'd be more interesting if we used the first option." I said. That way, there probably wouldn't be too many rules limiting us.

"Does everypony agree?" Rainbow Dash asked. They all nodded after a little bit of discussion. None of them seemed too keen on deciding anyway.

"Okay then. Rules. For unicorns: you can only use telekinesis. And you can only push, not pull. How you do it though is up to you. For Pegasi: you can't go more than twenty feet in the air. And for earth ponies, you can't throw other ponies around like they're a ball. You are also the only ones who can catch it besides the goalie. Pegasi actually have to hit it with their wings and unicorns have to push it." She looked at us, waiting for confirmation. I noticed she held her gaze a little longer on the big green stallion than for anypony else. She let it go though when he nodded.

"Now, you guys can choose how you want to play. It doesn't matter what your team does, you just have to have at least one pony guarding your goal. You can throw the ball any way you want so long as it won't require us to go to the hospital. That would ruin all the fun. The ball is pretty light, though, so Fluttershy and Thunder, don't worry about hitting it with your wings. They'll be fine." She took a breathe before continuing.

"Rules for the goalie. You can't leave your post for more than ten seconds, you can use any method you want to stop the ball from going in, and you can trade places with any of your team mates during the game. Just make sure you both know that you're switching places." She looked at Thunder this time.

"So who's on who's team?" She asked.

"Why don't we put all the stallions on one team and then we choose amongst us?" Rarity said. They all seemed to like that idea except for Thunder.

"Wait! How is that fair? We barely even know each other's names. How are we supposed to work together as a team?" He complained.

"Why dear, that's half the fun of it." Rarity responded with a smirk.

Thunder turned to me. "What do you have to say about this?" He asked me.

"I honestly don't care." I told him. I'd be fine with any combination although I'd probably work best with Pinkie.

"Light?" He asked the other stallion.

"I want to be with Fluttershy, but if I am with you two, I will be fine." He said. Thunder groaned at his lack of commitment.

"Fine. You girls have it your way." He crossed his arms and set his gaze on some far off trees, not the least bit happy.

It took a minute, but the other two teams were finally decided. The first team was Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. I was not looking forward to competing against them. From what I had heard, all three of them could be rather competitive, especially Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

The second team was Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Fluttershy. With the other two stallions and I rounding out the third team.

"Alright then." Rainbow Dash spoke. "We play till one team scores three points. Every team will face every team and the winner is the team with the most wins." She explained.

"So which two teams are going first." Twilight asked.

"Hm, how about you guys and the stallions." Applejack suggested.

"I like that! I'm gonna be against you, Ignaous! Won't this be fun?!" She yelled at me, jumping up and down in place. I smiled at her.

"I don't have any complaints." Thunder said, still a little peeved about the teams. He probably would have been happiest replacing Rainbow Dash on her team since he seemed like the competitive type.

I could count on him though to help me, but the big guy was a different story. He seemed disinterested in the game. To be honest, I didn't think he even wanted to be here. The little clues I had gathered led to him being somewhat slow. His style of speech, and the way Rainbow directed her instructions more towards him than anypony else really tipped me off. But I couldn't know for sure. He might be just as mentally capable as I was if not more so. That was always a possibility even though it was unlikely.

Thunder grabbed my arm and pulled me to where the big guy was.

"Okay guys, here's the plan. I'm the striker. Light, you're the goalie, and Ignaous is the defense. Got it?" He asked without really looking for an opinion. I was about to point out that that set up was okay, but not optimal. The best option was to switch Light and myself, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I didn't think he'd listen anyway.

"No objections? Alright then, let's roll guys. We got this. We can win!" He said. Whether he was trying to convince himself or us was up for debate.

We walked onto the left side of the field and took up our positions. They seemed to take the set up that was probably best for them. Pinkie on defense, Twilight as striker, and Fluttershy as goalie. Pinkie waved to me and I waved back.

Thunder went to the middle of the field and joined Twilight and Rainbow Dash, who would be refereeing this match.

"Three... Two... One... GO!" She threw the ball up into the air.

Thunder went straight up but was knocked off course by something. I looked at Twilight and saw her hand glowing. I then saw her bring her hand up, palm down, and then bring it down fast. The ball came flying down, bounced up to her eye level, and then came straight at me.

On instinct, I brought up a barrier. The ball stopped in mid air as Twilight and I struggled to gain the upper hand in our magical push battle.

It was never resolved as Thunder came flying down and whacked the ball with his wing at the other teams goal. Pinkie leaped and caught it. That ball had one Luna of bounce. Thunder hadn't even hit it that hard yet it had sailed across the field. I was amazed Pinkie had even caught it.

She wound up a throw and launched it.

Thunder was too far away to do anything and I sent a push but missed. It went sailing straight at our goal and into it, right past Light. He seemed to have been in a daze. I heard Thunder growl in disappointment, but he didn't say anything. He retrieved the ball and as he was flying back to the middle, he gave me a thumbs up. At least he wasn't a complete jerk when it came to sports.

He handed the ball to Rainbow and she made the exact same move. Counted down to one and threw the ball straight up. I was ready this time.

I sent a push at Twilight, knocking her off of her feet, giving Thunder time to whack the ball. It went sailing through the air straight at Fluttershy. She ducked and the ball sailed straight over her head and into the goal.

"One to one!" Rainbow Dash called.

Twilight grabbed the ball in her telekinesis and handed it to Rainbow Dash. For the third time, she counted down and threw.

I couldn't keep pulling the same tricks so this time, I pushed Thunder upwards towards the ball. I didn't see whether he had caught it or not since my view was suddenly one of the sky. I guess Twilight had done to me what I had done to her. I rolled and got to my hooves just in time to stop the ball from embedding itself in my face.

I thrust my hand out and bounced it off my push field. It went straight up. I made a push wall behind it and threw my arm forward, propelling the ball. It would have hit the net had Twilight not intervened. She pushed the ball just enough so that it hit the edge of the net. Pinkie had enough time to run and grab it. She wound up her throw and threw. I'd never be able to stop it without going out of bounds. Good thing Thunder came down in a corkscrew and whacked it back to the other teams goal. It went straight at Fluttershy, but she didn't duck this time and stuck out her hands while turning her head away. Spectacularly, it bounced off. Pinkie rolled, grabbed it, came up and threw all in one motion. She had one hell of an arm. It sailed past me and Thunder, and Light just barely missed catching it.

"Two to one favoring the mares!" Rainbow Dash called.

"Thunder!" I called to him. He flew down to me.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Switch." I said.

"What?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"You're never going to be able to get that ball on your own with Twilight as the other striker. She'll push you or the ball out of the way every time unless I do something and I'm not the most accurate pony when it comes to pushing." I explained to him.

"Fine." He said after thinking it over.

He handed me the ball and I ran over to the center.

Twilight smirked at me. I think she knew what I was planning to do. Oh well.

Rainbow Dash counted and threw. Without even looking at the ball, and thrust my hands forward casting a push on Twilight. She did the same thing and locked us. Our hands were about four inches apart and I could see the vibrations in the air and our magical pulses as our spells collided.

"Thunder! Now!" I yelled as I held Twilight there.

"Gotcha!" He yelled back. I heard him fly forward and hit the ball. I saw it sail over our heads. Pinkie caught it and threw it back.

"You're pretty powerful, Ignaous." Twilight complimented me.

"Not bad yourself, Twilight. I'd expect no less from the element of magic." I responded. We held that position for what felt like forever, neither of us losing power or backing down. It must have been a pretty even match between our teams for it to last this long.

Finally, a unicorn that could match me in sheer power. She was a lot more talented in the push spell it seemed, but I seemed to be more efficient in my usage of magic than her. It made sense. I was pretty sure I was a year or two older than her.

Our hooves were starting to make significant dents in the ground when I heard Rainbow Dash call game.

"Twilight's team wins!" Rainbow announced. Pinkie must have gotten the better of Thunder.

"Ready?" She asked me. I nodded.

"Three... two... one... release!" She yelled. Our magic disappeared and our hands rammed together. We used each other to avoid falling. We let go of each other's hands and looked around.

The ground was pretty banged up below us and on Twilight's side. It seemed Thunder liked to hit hard and bounce it.

"That was pretty cool what you two were doing. I could FEEL the magic coming from you guys. And I'm not even a unicorn!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"That WAS pretty intense." I admitted. Twilight nodded.

"Good game?" I asked as I stuck out my hand to Twilight.

She grabbed it and shook. "Good game."

"Break time!" Pinkie said. She bounded off to a picnic basket that I hadn't noticed earlier. She brought all of us that had competed sandwiches.

"So who's up next?" Twilight asked in between bites. Her colt was sitting next to her eating his own sandwich.

"I wanna go against Thunder." Rainbow Dash said with a grin.

"Bring it on Rainbow. We'll kick your sorry butts." Thunder responded.

I didn't think we were going to win. Fluttershy and Light had basically been the same. Almost completely useless. But now they had three real players and we only had myself and Thunder to be perfectly fair. Light had missed the first and third goal, and only barely reacted to stop the second goal from happening. He just didn't want to play the game it seemed. Nothing wrong with that, but it didn't make it too much fun for Thunder and I.

The six of us stood up and walked over to the field. We took up the same positions. I was the striker. Light was the goalie. And Thunder was defense.

For the other team. Rainbow Dash was the striker. Rarity was goalie, and Applejack was defense.

"What? Why isn't Thunder up here?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Because this worked for Twilight's team and Thunder seems to be best at defense rather than offense." I explained. Rainbow Dash growled to herself in disappointment.

Pinkie was our referee for this game. She counted down and threw.

I pushed Rainbow Dash backwards and called to Thunder. He raced forward and slammed his wing into the ball, sending it straight at the other goal. Applejack jumped and just barely missed. It went sailing straight at Rarity and she attempted to block it. However, she didn't notice me running forward.

I went straight past Applejack as she landed and sent a push at the ball, overpowering Rarity's spell and forcing the ball in the goal.

"One to Zero favoring Ignaous' team!" Pinkie said my name rather musically.

I guess Rarity wasn't on the same level as Twilight and I. Maybe we did have a chance.

Rarity threw the ball to Pinkie as I ran to the center of the field.

Rainbow Dash and I squared up and Pinkie did her thing.

I was about to push Rainbow Dash out of the way again, but something barreled into me and I landed on the ground, hard. I looked up to see Applejack sitting on me.

"Hi, sugar." She said with a smile.

I saw Rainbow Dash fly up and whack the ball. Thunder caught it just in time and sent it at Rarity. She blasted it back at our goal. Light reached for it and it bounced off his hand and into the goal.

"One to One!" Pinkie announced.

I moved my head to look at Applejack. She was smiling.

"Yeah. That was a good one." I said as I let my head fall onto the ground.

She got off of me and helped me up.

"Light, take Thunder's spot! Thunder, you're striker now!" I called to them. Time to change up the game. They were better than us. I could see that. We had gotten that first goal because I surprised Rarity. That wasn't going to happen again.

We each ran to our new positions and Pinkie started the round.

Thunder and Rainbow Dash flew straight up. From here, it was unlikely that I could do anything with my push spell, but that was the point. I moved where Rarity moved. Applejack could easily take me down where she was now. I beat Rainbow, Applejack beat me, and Rarity and I were rather tied. However, Light was bigger and probably stronger than Applejack and Thunder seemed to be on Rainbow Dash's level when it came to flying. So we could only hope that Light overpowering Applejack would get us the win.

Rainbow Dash got to the ball first and knocked it back to Applejack instead of at us. Applejack caught it and threw. Light stuck out his hand and caught it, surprising me. He didn't even really look, he just did it.

"There you go, Light! You just had to get out of this goalie position!" I called to him.

He threw it up and at Thunder who twirled and smacked it as hard as he could. He didn't have too much aim on this one and it went straight at Applejack. There was no way she was going to catch this one. It'd bounce right out of her hand.

However, she did something I didn't know was possible. She pulled her arm back and punched the ball straight at me. I didn't even have time to think about what she did as the ball sailed past me and into the net.

Thunder was the same way. He just stared at the ball, dumbfounded.

"Uhhhh, what?" I heard him say.

Applejack was celebrating her spectacular move.

"Two to One, favoring Rainbow Dash's team!" Pinkie announced.

I threw the ball to Pinkie and got over what had just happened.

She threw the ball up and Rainbow Dash and Thunder raced after it.

"Light, get Applejack. Do to her what she did to me when I was the striker!" I called to him.

I could see the surprise on both their faces, but he did it. He charged Applejack, who started galloping backwards. With that taken care of, I looked at the Pegasus pair. They had their hands clutched together and were wrestling in the sky. The ball was on the ground in the middle of the field. I looked at Rarity and ran forward.

I pushed the ball upwards and pushed it at her. I then pushed at the ground at me feet and went sailing back to the net. I landed with two seconds to spare. Rarity thrust out her hands with the ball about two feet in front of her and I thrust out mine. At this distance, we were about equal.

"Thunder!" I called. He pushed Rainbow Dash away and sailed down. Rarity could do nothing as Thunder came down and whacked the ball out of our cones and into the net.

"Two to two!" Pinkie yelled.

Rarity threw the ball to her and we all resumed our positions.

Pinkie threw the ball up and I exploded a push wave at Applejack. She was the key player here. Taking her out as early as possible was the smartest option.

Thunder managed to get the ball this time and whacked it to Light. He caught it and threw. Rarity deflected it and Rainbow Dash came down and corkscrewed her wing into the ball sending it to the now recovered Applejack. She caught it and ran. Light went to intercept her, but she twirled around him and threw the ball. Thunder was on the other side of the field so it was up to me.

I sent a force push spell out but Rainbow Dash came out of nowhere and whacked it past my spell and into the goal, winning the game.

"Rainbow Dash's team wins!" Pinkie yelled.

I smiled. That was a pretty fun game. I was sure we were going to be shut out.

We converged in the center. "That was a pretty good game." I said. Elbowing Thunder who had his arms crossed. He mumbled a yeah.

I stuck out my hand and Applejack grabbed it, shaking it.

"Didn't think you were tha one for plays like that." She said to me.

"I've always been good at coordinating things. I guess that translates well to sports. I'm just lucky Thunder knew what I meant whenever I yelled his name." I told her.

We had a break while Rainbow Dash's team rested.

The final match was a shut out. Thunder had refereed while Light and I watched Twilight's colt. Rainbow Dash's team was just too competitive to beat it seemed.

We all stayed awhile and played a few more games before heading home. Pinkie had asked if should could spend the night at my house since she was too tired to walk to Sugar cube corner after the long day. I had agreed and we were currently walking in the door.

I looked at the clock. About eight thirty.

"It's pretty late for me." I said, stretching and yawning.

"So where do you want to sleep? Bed or couch?" I asked her.

"We can stay in the bed." She said.

"Both of us?" I asked while yawning and confused.

"Why not? It's cold tonight." She said.

It really wasn't. I think she just didn't want to sleep alone here. It would be the first time she had stayed over.

"Alright." I said, giving in.

I went to the bathroom to see if I was awake enough for a shower. I wasn't. I was getting more tired by the minute.

I walked back into the living room to find Pinkie.

"If you want to take a shower, I probably have some sweat pants that would fit you. But a shirt might be another story." I said while looking at her chest. She was a rather curvy mare because of her diet and I only had stallion shirts. None of them were real baggy either. It'd be a pretty tight fit.

"That doesn't matter. It doesn't look like you're taking a shower." She answered.

"No, I'm not. I'm just going to change into some clothes. Come on, I'll let you look through my closet to see if there's anything that'll fit you comfortably."

I led her through the house to my bedroom, even though she already knew where that was.

I started going through my closet and found some pajamas that I could wear.

Pinkie looked and picked out some sweats and the baggiest shirt I had. I went to the bathroom while she stayed there to change.

As I was pulling on my pajamas, I yawned harder and harder. At one point, I yawned so hard, I had to stop getting dressed.

"I need to go to bed before I pass out while walking." I told myself.

I came back to my room after throwing my clothes in the hamper. I knocked on the door and Pinkie said come in.

The sweat pants fit just fine. It was the shirt that was the problem.

"You can't be comfortable in that. I can see the outline of your bra like I'm looking at it without a shirt covering it." I told her.

"It's fine. I don't want to wear a muddy shirt in your bed." She assured me.

"If you're okay with it." I said.

I walked over to my bed and climbed in, getting under the covers.

Pinkie shut off the light and got in on the other side.

"You like me right, Ignaous?" She asked me out of nowhere.

I turned my head towards her. We had our backs to each other.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"We're a couple, aren't we?" She asked.

"I mean, I thought we were. Are we not?" I responded.

She shrugged. "It doesn't feel like it. We just spent the whole day barely talking and now we're in the same bed about to fall asleep without having done anything coupley." She explained.

I fully turned to her and she turned to me.

"Pinkie, I'm going to pass out in about five seconds. We wouldn't have time if we tried. Not to mention, it's been two days. We're not rabbits, we're ponies. When it happens, it happens. And of course I like you. I wouldn't be in this bed if I didn't like you."

She smiled at me. "Thanks, Ignaous."

I moved my arm to wrap around her and we scooted closer. She kissed my forehead and I passed out on the spot, finally asleep.

* * *

 **A/N: Here is most likely the second to last chapter. I've gotten into the habit of not having any A/N's in a last chapter, so I get everything out here. This story had A LOT of ups and downs. I'm going to be frank with a lot of people here; I'm not the biggest fan of Pinkie, and this affected the story a lot. It made me lose interest, not write chapters, and put it on hiatus for a while. Before I knew it, almost five months had passed since I had posted ANYTHING. And that disturbed me.**

 **So I started writing again. It wasn't this, but a different project (that still isn't finished to be honest, only half done (at most)) that got me back into writing and it wasn't long after that, that I started developing this story more. Because of Pinkie, this story is the first one I've done where I needed to write an outline because things just wouldn't flow (I've had the outline since chapter two I think). I don't believe this story is of any lesser quality than my story with Fluttershy (which I am the most proud of and I think got really good somewhat near the end). In fact, it might be an even higher quality in technicalities than it. So that didn't suffer. It was just everything else. The drive, the creativity, and the passion.**

 **But this story is done now and I am happy with how it turned out. I'm not slightly embarrassed by my previous chapters like I am with all my other stories (I don't know why, but the beginnings for my stories don't seem that good compared to the ends. Fluttershy's is a prime example of that). There is also a good chance that I won't be doing another story about one of the rest of the main six next. It will be about a side character and I hope to explore some more, for lack of a better phrase, grown up themes. It's still going to be about romance (that's the backbone for most of my stories), but it will deal with other things. I've been mulling it over in my head for awhile and am confident on where I want to take it.**

 **With that being said (and I need to end this), see you on the flip side.**


	10. Chapter 10: Baker and Tinker

**August 19th (Sunday)**

I woke up with a yawn to find myself squished. I wiggled around a little bit and noticed how soft whatever was on top of me felt.

"Pinkie, is that you?" I asked through the pillow that my face was mashed into.

She snorted awake. "What, what's happening?" I felt her push up with her arms and take some of the pressure off of me. She was laying on top of me.

"Oh. Sorry, Ignaous. I usually have a large pillow I wake up on top of in the morning. I guess that was you today." She got off of me, sat on the side of the bed and stretched. I looked towards her and noticed she wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Too tight?" I asked her.

She nodded her head.

"I told you." I said.

"Yeah, you did. Oh well." She stood up and walked over to her clothes.

"How am I going to get home?" Without warning, she gasped.

"Today's the day the cakes are leaving!" She yelled.

"What time?" I asked her as I sat up.

"At two-thirty! I need to get home. Right. Now." She started trying to put her old shirt on.

I looked at the clock and noticed it was only seven-thirty.

"Pinkie, you have seven hours before they leave. You're fine." I told her.

She turned back to me with the shirt tangled around her shoulders and head.

"Oh... can you help me?" She asked in defeat.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

I got out of the bed and walked over to her. I grabbed part of the shirt and pulled. It came off after a few more tugs and she was free.

"But how am I going to get home? I can smell the shirt from here." She said, twisting her face into one of disgust. First time I had seen that.

"You can wash it here. It's not like I don't have a washing machine." I told her.

"Really? Thank you." She said, pleased.

"In fact, I'm pretty due for laundry. I'm starting to run out of things to wear."

I grabbed my laundry basket and walked to my washer in the bathroom. I threw everything in there like I normally do, put some detergent in and started it up.

"That's how you ruin your clothes silly." Pinkie told me from the door way.

"What?" I asked. That was how I always did laundry.

"You have to separate everything. Dark and light. Clothes, underwear and socks. It keeps everything nice and fresh." She explained.

"That would explain why my clothes always felt better after I came home from spending a week with one of my sisters." I said, more to myself than to her.

"Well, too late now." I said as I walked past her. I saw her nod her head. She fell in to step beside me as we walked back to my room.

I looked over and really noticed this time that she was only wearing a bra on top.

"I can't have you walking around the house like that. I need to find you something to cover up with." I told her.

She looked like she wanted to make a joke, but thought better of it.

We made it back to my room and I went digging through my closet. It took a while, but I finally noticed an old sweater on the floor. I knelt down to grab it.

"Here, put this on. It can stretch and it should stretch enough to fit you. It was on the floor though, so heads up." I told her. I threw the sweater to her and she put it on. It didn't like it, but it held.

"Dear Celestia, that thing is old." I said out loud. I heard Pinkie's stomach growl and I stood up.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat."

It was another hour and a half before we were showered, full, and fully clothed. We left the house and made our way to Sugarcube corner.

We made it and walked inside. The cakes were bringing down luggage when we saw them.

I went upstairs and grabbed the rest of it in my magic, bringing it downstairs in one fell swoop. It seemed they had a lot more luggage than I had seen when they first arrived.

"Thanks for your help, Ignaous." Mr. Cake said, thanking me.

"You're welcome. It's good to help out when you can." I answered automatically. My mind was elsewhere. I was thinking about what Pinkie and I would be doing in the meantime. The Cakes wouldn't leave for a couple more hours, so we definitely had time to kill before we saw them off.

"Hey, Ignaous. We got some time to kill, want to bake something?" Pinkie asked me.

"Sure." I said, getting excited. This could be what I did for the rest of my working life.

We walked into the kitchen while the Cakes sat at one of the booths and talked, waiting for when they would leave. The foals were coloring.

"So let's start with a cake. Do you know what we need for a cake?" She asked me.

I wracked my brain. "Flour... eggs... milk... and butter?" I asked. I had only ever skimmed through cook books when I was bored. I hadn't thought I had actually picked anything up.

"Close. But we also need some baking powder and vanilla extract." She corrected me with a smile.

"Vanilla what?" I asked her. I had never heard of Vanilla extract.

"It's basically just pure vanilla flavor you add to dishes." She explained.

"Alright then, now we need certain measurements for each thing. Are you ready with your magic?" She asked me. I was glad she knew that I was too impatient right now to hand measure all this stuff. I nodded.

"Two eggs." I grabbed two eggs from the fridge.

"One cup of white sugar." Grabbed that.

"One and a half cups of flour... a half cup of milk... two teaspoons of vanilla extract... one and three quarters baking powder... and one half cup of butter."

As she said each thing, I grabbed it and measured it, putting it on to the counter by a mixing bowl.

Pinkie instructed me on the steps and we put the cake in. We made a different kind of cake, a chocolate one, while the first one baked.

The second one was about a quarter done baking when the first oven dinged.

We took it out of the oven and frosted it with white frosting. We cut it up into six pieces and brought it out to the Cakes for enjoyment.

Pinkie and I waited to have ours while the Cakes tried it.

"Oh... it's um... interesting." Mrs. Cake said while she chewed.

"Indeed." Her husband agreed with her. The kids were less polite.

"This isn't very good." Pumpkin said, and pushed the plate of cake away. Pound just dropped his head onto the table with a loud bang.

"So... gross." He said while his face was pressed against the table.

I sighed.

I felt Pinkie clap me on the back. "Don't worry, Ignaous. It's your first time. You probably just mixed the ingredients wrong or something; it'll be fine. Just wait and see."

The rest of the day before the cakes left continued on like that. I learned what I had been doing wrong. I hadn't been working with some of the ingredients long enough before I put them in the oven to bake. What normally took seven to eight minutes, I did in three. Pinkie didn't notice since I balanced myself out with the eggs. I seemed to be very picky about the shells.

My cakes got better as the day passed and I was finally getting the hang of it. Tomorrow would be cupcakes and muffins.

When two O'clock rolled around, the six of us departed. We made it to the train station about fifteen minutes later and waited with the Cakes until the train was about to leave the station. We all said our goodbyes. I was a little surprised when Pumpkin gave me a hug. Pinkie probably wouldn't let me live that down.

"So what do you want to do now?" She asked me.

"Let's take a walk. I've never really walked walked around Ponyville. I just picked a location and went to it. I didn't really look at what was on the way." I answered.

"Sounds like fun."

So we passed most of the day like that. We were by a large pond when the sun started to set and decided to rest our legs on the beach.

We had our legs out and our hands behind us, holding up our upper bodies. I moved my hand over and clasped Pinkie's. She glanced over at me and smiled. Her head fell onto my shoulder and I put my head on hers.

"You were right last night." She said.

"About what?" We had talked about quite a few things last night. Both on the walk home and at my house.

"About it happening when it happens. This is much nicer than if we were rutting in the bushes over there." She said, pointing her nose to some bushes that were to the right of us a couple of feet.

"It is nicer, isn't it?" I asked rhetorically.

She yawned, causing me to yawn.

"I guess we're both tired. A lot of baking and a lot of walking." I said out loud.

I pulled my head up from my position and she followed suite, looking at me a little confused.

I leaned in and kissed her. I felt her smooth lips with just a hint of sugar from all the sweets we had made today.

She leaned into it, enjoying herself. She was happy, and so was I.

 **Differences are expected, although sometimes shamed. But it's the people that refuse to understand, who are to be blamed. Living with these differences is all you can do. To live in a world where everyone is not like you. The darkness will fade if it's compassion we seek. A utopia for all both strong and weak.**


End file.
